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rheism  and  Atheism  in  Science. 


By  the  late  Col.  CHAS.  WHITTLESEY. 


THEISM  I  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 


IS  EVOLUTION  HERETICAL? 


BY  COLONEL,  CHARLES  WHITTLESEY 


About  1840  there  was  published  in 
England  without  date  or  preface,  by 
an  unknown  author,  a  very  erudite 
work,  entitled  "  Vestiges  of  Creation." 
A  second  edition  or  sequel  was  after- 
wards issued  by  the  author  defending 
his  theory,  in  which  appears  dates  as 
late  as  1843.  This  was  republished 
in  the  United  States,  by  Harper's 
Brothers,  also  undated. 

Like  Junius,  the  writer  still  remains 
stat  nominis  umbwi.  Hugh  Miller,  in 
his  "'Footprints  of  the  Creator,"  replied 
to  the  "  Vestiges  of  Creation  "  with 
equal  erudition  and  more  eloquence. 

His  invisible  antagonist  refers  to 
researches  of  Darwin  repeatedly,  but 
the  latter  had  not  then  published  his 
work  on  the  "  Origiu  of  Species. " 
The  author  of  the  "  Vestiges  '  adopts 
the  Continental  theory  of  spontaneous 
or  aboriginal  generation,  or  evolution, 
which  was  then  synonymous  with 
development.  He  is,  however,  not  an 
atheist  but  a  theist,  and  everywhere 
attributes  evolution  to  a  divine  law 
and  law-giver.  His  expressions  are 
numerous  and  explicit;  always  re- 
pudiating the  idea  of  fatality  and 
materialism — For  example: 

(Vest  iffes.  Harpers  Edition  p.  84) 
uLet  us  see  how  the  doctrine  or  crea- 
tion by  law,  agrees  wTith  this  ex- 
pounded view  of  the* organic  world.'' 

(p.  82.)  "  Those  who  object  to  the 
hypothesis  of  a  creation  by  the  inter- 
vention of  law,  do  not  perhaps  con- 
sider how  powerful  an  argument  in 
favor  of  the  existence  of  God  is  lost 
by  rejecting  this  doctrine.'1 
'  (p.'  197-198.)  "It  is  proper  to  en- 
quire if  there  be  necessarily,  in  this 
doctrine  of  natural  law,  any  pecu- 
liarity calculated  materially  to  effect 
our  hitherto  supposed  relation  to  the 
Deity.      *      *      *      For  let  us  but 


fully  and  truly  consider  what  a  system 
is  here  laid  open  to  view,  and  we  can- 
not well  doubt  that  we  are  in  the 
hands  of  One  who  is  both  able  and 
willing  to  do  us  the  most  entire  justice. 

"  In  this  faith  we  may  rest  at  ease, 
even  though  life  should  have  been  to 
us  but  a  protracted  disease,  or  though 
ever\r  hope  we  had  built  on  the  secular 
materials  within  our  reach  was  felt  to 
be  melting  from  our  grasp.  Think- 
ing of  all  the  contingencies  of  this 
world  to  be  melted  into  or  lost  in  the 
greater  system,  to  which  the  present 
is  only  subsidiary,  let  us  wait  the  end 
with  patience  and  be  of  good  cheer." 

Numerous  quotations  might  be  add- 
ed of  a  similar  import  from  this  gifted 
writer,  who  should  never  have  hesi- 
tated to  avow  himself.  Though  he 
adopted  scientifically  the  hypothesis 
of  Oken,  Lamark  and  De  Maillet,  the 
misapplication  of  their  doctrines  to 
atheism  in  morals  and  religion  he  does 
not  fail  to  denounce.  This  author  whose 
diffuse  style  and  broad  learning  bear 
strong  resemblance  to  Lyell's,  begins 
the  process  of  evolution  with  the  uni- 
verse in  its  nebulous  condition.  He 
adopts  the  theory  of  La-Place  and 
Comte  in  regard  to  the  condition  of 
matter  throughout  stellar  space,  in  the 
form  of  incandescent  vapor,  having  a 
motion  of  revolution  from  west  to 
east. 

By  concentration,  according  to  the 
nebulous  hypothesis,  stars  were  thrown 
off,  and  from  them  planets  and  their 
satellites,  by  a  law  of  mechanics  well 
understood. 

Though  there  are  astronomers  who 
have  doubts  of  the  correctness  of  this 
hypothesis,  it  is  generally  received  at 
this  day. 

In  its  place  there  is  no  alternate 
theory    of   sufficient    prominence    to 


IS   EVOLUTION  HERETICAL 


discredit  La  Place.  From  this  arch- 
aic stage  of  evolution  the  "Vestiges" 
assumes  the  origin  of  life  as  an 
analogy,  and  on  the  ground  that 
development  must  be  an  universal 
law,  pervading  all  conditions  of  mat- 
ter, impressed  upon  it  by  the  Creator. 

At  that  time  the  distinction  be- 
tween the  origin  of  species  by  diver- 
gence from  existing  forms,  and  the 
origin  of  species  by  the  generation  of 
life,  was  not  clearly  considered. 

At  the  present  time  the  proofs  of 
divergence  are  so  frequently  wanting, 
that  there  is  the  same  necessity  for  a 
generous  confidence  which  existed  in 
regard  to  the  insect  acarus  supposed 
to  be  generated  by  electricity  by 
Doctor  Bastian. 

The  utterances  of  Mr.  Darwin  are 
quite  similar: 

,;  There  is  grandeur  in  this  view  of 
life  with  its  several  powers,  having 
been  originally  breathed  by  the  Crea- 
tor into  a  few  forms  or  into  one,  and 
that  while  this  planet  has  gone 
cycling  onward  according  to  the  fixed 
law  of  gravity  from  so  simple  a  be- 
ginning, endless  forms,  most  beauti- 
ful and  most  wonderful,  have  been 
and  are  being  evolved. " — Origin  of 
Species,  p.  429. 

"Iain  aware  that  the  conclusions 
arrived  at  in  this  work  will  be  de- 
nounced by  some  as  highly  irreligious. 
He  who  denounces  them  is  bound  to 
show  why  it  is  more  irreligious  to  ex- 
plain the  origin  of  man  as  a  distinct 
species  by  descent  from  some  lower 
form  through  the  laws  of  variation 
and  natural  selection,  than  to  explain 
the  birth  of  an  individual  through 
the  laws  of  ordinary  reproduction. 
The  birth  of  both  species  and  individ- 
uals are  equally  parts  of  a  grand  se- 
quence of  events  which  our  minds  re- 
fuse to  accept  as  the  result  of  blind 
chance." — Descent  of  Man,  />.  612. 

However,  not  long  before  his 
death,  Mr.  Darwin,  in  a  private  let- 
ter to  a  friend  on  the  Continent,  pub- 
lished after  his  decease,  made  use  of 


expressions  from  which  atheists  have 
claimed  that  he  was  of  their  belief. 
or  rather  disbelief.  It  is  also  true 
that  the  origin  of  species  by  diver- 
gence from  preexisting  forms  does 
not  imply  at  the  same  time,  an  origin 
of  life.  Neither  does  it  follow  that 
development  may  not  exhaust  itself 
and  cease  in  a  given  line  when  its  pur- 
pose is  accomplished.  All  minerals, 
from  the  oldest,  to  those  of  the  new- 
est rocks,  crystallize  under  the  proper 
conditions.  When  each  crystal  is 
perfected,  by  a  mysterious  process 
that  never  varies,  and  is  rigidly  con- 
trolled by  material  laws,  the  process 
in  that  special  instance  ceases  because 
its  work  is  finished. 

The  disciples  of  Darwin,  especially 
those  young  naturalists  who  are  pre- 
disposed to  materialism,  have  pushed 
his  doctrines  beyond  those  of  their 
leaders.  In  regard  to  species,  varie- 
ties and  races,  the  distinctions  are 
not  so  well  defined,  that  it  is  very 
difficult  to  show  divergences. 

For  genera,  families,  classes,  orders 
and  sub-kingdoms,  the  differences  are 
better  determined. 

Divergences  among  them  are  there- 
fore more  difficult  to  establish,  which 
will  be  referred  to  hereafter. 

But  if  it  is  admitted  that  in  the  ani- 
mal kingdom,  divergences  are  tracea- 
ble to  the  dawn  of  life,  there  is  be- 
hind this,  untouched,  the  question  of 
the  institution  of  vitality,  or  the  ori- 
gin of  animal  life. 

The  origin  of  the  pre-existing  min- 
eral kingdom  is  'easy  of  solution  by 
theists;  Jmt  this,  like  that  of  animal 
life,  must  be  accounted  for  by  mate- 
rialists, on  scientific  or  philosophical 
grounds  only;  and  here  their  conclu- 
sions fail  at  the  most  important 
point. 

What  were  the  primitive  forms  of 
plants  or  animals  is  not  known. 

By  analogy  geologists  infer  thai 
the  earliest  ones  were  animated  jellies, 
or  gelatinous  foci,  of  which  the  rhiz- 
opods  are  an  example:  but  of  which 


IS  EVOLUTION   HERETICAL 


the  fossilized  condition  is  too  obscure 
to  be  studied.  There  .are  premoni- 
tions of  more  ancient  living  objects, 
but  this  is  inferential,  not  proven. 

Probably  this  is  the  reason  why 
mineral  gelatines  were  selected  by  be- 
lievers in  spontaneous  generation  as 
the  seat  of  primordial  existence. 

Following  up  the  line  of  descent  to 
this  inevitable  point,  we  reach  a  posi- 
tion where  divergencies  cannot  occur, 
and  the  vague  influences  of  environ- 
ment, natural  selection  and  inherit- 
ance cannot  be  considered,  because 
there  was  but  one  individual.  'We  are 
face  to  face  with  the  naked  question 
of  the  origin  of  life,  either  by  a 
supreme  creator  or  by  what  must  be 
of  equal  potency,  —  self-generation. 
The  latter  is  only  a  different  name 
and  location  for  the  same  power, 
where  a  mineral  without  life  im- 
presses inert  matter  with  what  it  has 
not,  showing  a  far  reaching  de- 
sign of  progression,  which  is  in- 
finite. Back  of  this  the  atheistical 
scientist  is  required  to  explain  the 
origin  of  the  few  simple  substances 
which  form  the  basis  of  the  material 
universe.  The  theistical  scientist  is 
content  to  admit  of  a  supernatural 
pre-existing  mind,  which  originated 
these  primordial  atoms,  and  designed- 
ly invested  them  with  the  capacity  of 
combination  and  development,  known 
as  natural  laws,  which  from  their 
origin  have  been  in  constant  activity. 

On  the  assumption  that  these  sim- 
ple substances  are  self-created,  we 
shall  be  compelled  to  believe  that 
matter  preceded  mind  in  the  order  of 
existence,  and  originating  with  some- 
thing that  did  not  exist,  impressed 
upon  itself  a  capacity  to  originate 
life,  and  evolve  worlds.  Those  sixty- 
five  unconscious  substances  could 
have  no  precedence  over  each  other, 
or  have  had  any  form  of  mental  ac- 
tion until  animal  life  occurred. 

These  are  the  proper  fields  of  sci- 
ence, requiring  all  the  powers  of  the 
human  intellect.     Not  one  of  them  is 


as  yet  fully  understood,  but  it  is 
plainly  observable,  that  they  are  ev- 
erywhere at  work  and  will  so  con- 
tinue through  interminable asons.  The 
origin  of  matter,  the  subsequent  ori- 
gin of  vegetable  life  followed  bv  ani- 
mal,  must  be  regarded  as  creative 
acts.  If  the  missing  link  shall  be 
discovered  connecting  the  monkey 
and  the  man,  a  guiding  hand  is  still 
necessary  to  select  one  or  more  pairs 
out  of  many  thousands,  and  fix  the 
time  when  their  progeny  should  be- 
come progenitors  of  the  race.  • 

Materialists  claim  that  it  is  impos- 
sible to  conceive  of  the  self-origin  of 
a  being  with  power  to  create  mat- 
ter. Such  a  conception  is  indeed  be- 
yond our  powers  except  as  a  logical 
inference.  The  distance  of  the  remot- 
est star,  which  is  finite,  is  especially 
beyond  our  comprehension  except  as 
a  mathematical  demonstration,  or 
that  of  the  nearest  star,  or  even  of 
the  farthest  planet  of  our  own  system. 
Incomprehensibility  attaches  to  thou- 
sands of  facts,  which  are  not  on  that 
account  to  be  denied.  Very  few  if 
any  of  the  laws  of  nature  will  be 
considered  as  fully  understood  even  in 
this  scientific  age.  Within  every  one 
of  us  are  faculties,  of  the  existence  of 
which  we  are  conscious  every  hour, 
but  their  mysterious  workings  we 
understand  little  better  than  the  mys- 
tery of  Deity. 

If  human  incomprehensibility  is  a 
good  ground  for  denying  the  super- 
natural origin  of  the  laws  of  nature, 
which  ensure  continuous  regulation, 
it  is  good  ground  for  denying  our 
own  existence. 

The  self-origin  of  matter  and  of 
nature's  laws  requires  a  faith  as  much 
more  sweeping  as  millions  of  such 
conceptions  require  more  fait\i  than 
one.  In  either  case  we  are  to  be  di- 
rected by  reason,  and  the  considera- 
tion of  what  is  within  the  range  of 
our  observation;  having  intellect 
enough  to  make  us  responsible  for  a 
correct  conclusion. 


IS  EVOLITION  HERETICAL? 


The  construction  of  the  universe 
under  any  of  the  plans  hitherto  dis- 
cussed implies  a  previous  spiritual  ex- 
istence. There  is  an  order  and  a 
succession  of  events  which  demand 
thought  as  well  as  action,  implying 
a  determination  or  mental  design 
prior  to  the  existence  of  matter.  In- 
ert inorganic  matter  directing  its  own 
origin  is  a  clear  absurdity. 

There  are  in  the  United  States 
numerous  theists  and  Christians  who 
are  scientists  of  reputation,  who  ac- 
cent the  theory  of  Darwin  so  far  as  it 
has  a  settled  position  in  natural 
science.  Their  religious  couvictions 
are  not  disturbed  by  a  doctrine  pure- 
ly scientific.  That  it  has  been  mis- 
applied by. materialists  to  questions  of 
religious  belief  outside  the  domain  of 
science,  neither  weakens  nor  strength- 
ens it  as  a  scientific  truth.  I  knew  a 
mathematician  who  concluded  to  set- 
tle the  question  of  a  future  state  by 
an  algebraic  formula.  The  question 
of  a  divine  agency  in  this  universe  is 
one  of  ethics,  not  of  the  exact 
sciences.  On  moral  subjects  philoso- 
phers cannot  claim  a  monopoly  of 
authority. 

What  Darwin  claims  to  have  dem- 
onstrated in  regard  to  development  of 
species  in  animals,  covers  but  a  limited 
portion  of  the  general  theory  of  evo- 
lution in  the  natural  world. 

If  the  doctrine  is  true,  it  cannot  be 
limited  to  one  department  of  nature, 
but  must  apply  to  all  parts  of  the  uni- 
verse. Its  mission  must  be  universal  and 
this  divine  plan  must  have  begun  to 
take  effect  as  soon  as  a  particle  of 
matter  existed.  The  design  was  to 
carry  out  a  system  of  natural  law 
which  has  operated  and  shall  operate 
as  long  as  there  may  exist  a  world  of 
matter.  Further  on  I  shall  refer  to 
some  of  the  most  prominent  phases 
of  development  in  the  planetary  and 
stellar  systems,  and  to  well-established 
changes  or  metamorphoses  in  the 
rocky  beds  of  this  planet,  all  indicat- 
ing a  plan,  formed  before  the  creation 


of  matter.  In  this  vast  scheme  there 
is  a  valuable  and  beneficent  purpose, 
extending  through  the  whole  of  it, 
which  operates  with  harmony  in  all 
departments  of  nature,  including  its 
mental  and  spiritual  phase.  If  any 
thing  has  originated  spontaneously  in 
the  sense  of  independence  of  this 
plan,  it  must  be  an  opposition  crea- 
tion. While  the  all-pervading  prin- 
ciple of  evolution  is  true  as  a  sci- 
entific fact,  it  by  no  means  fol- 
lows that  materialistic  evolution, 
as  applied  to  questions  of  ethics, 
is  true/  To  extend  it  so  far  as 
to  cover  the  origin  of  matter  or  of 
life,  is  an  assumption  not  warranted 
by  science  or  observation. 

Darwin  and  his  compeer  in  natural 
science,  Huxley,  rejected  the  theory  of 
spontaneous  generation.  The  former, 
however,  carried  his  conclusions  so 
far  in  relation  to  the  origin  of  species 
that  his  claims  came  very  near  to  the 
origin  of  life.  Prof.  Huxley  endows 
protoplasm  with  almost  the  same  po- 
tency. Their  disciples,  in  many  in- 
stances, go  beyond  both  of  these  phil- 
osophers, evidently  on  account  of 
their  eagerness  to  combat  theology 
and  deify  nature  to  the  exclusion  of 
nature's  God.  The  late  Prof.  Bar- 
rande,  in  France,  and  Louis  Agassiz, 
in  the  United  States,  yery  much  cir- 
cumscribe the  Darwinian  theoiw  of 
development.  Profs.  Dawson,  Guy  of 
and  Dana  restrict  it  to  changes  with- 
in narrow  limits. 

As  the  contest  now  stands,  there  is 
no  point  in  the  line  of  attack  which  is 
scientifically  more  weak  than  spon- 
taneous generation. 

Even  though  it  should  be  proven  to 
be  true  that  life  had  been  evolved 
from  sea-foam  or  from  star-dust,  or 
gelatinous  points,  from  solutions  of 
silex,  or  by  protoplasm,  the  necessity 
of  a  ruling  spirit,  more  ancient  than 
any  of  these  substances;  and  the  belief 
in  theism  would  be  evidently  strength- 
ened. 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 

II. 
EVOLUTION  IN  THE  PLANETARY  AND  STELLAR  WORLD. 


BY  COLONEL    CHARLES  WHITTLESEY. 


The  consideration  of  a  subject  so 
immense  that  it  staggers  the  greatest 
of  human  intellects,  is  introduced,  not 
because  it  is  new,  but  because  it  lies 
at  the  foundation  of  Evolution,  and 
is  largely  mechanical  in  its  nature.  The 
space  occupied  by  the  stars  is  as  a 
sentiment  wholly  inconceivable.  As 
a  problem  in  mathematics,  however, 
by  the  use  of  known  distances  we  are 
enabled  to  grasp  it  mentally,  to  a  lim- 
ited extent.  The  stellar  system  has 
its  bounds,  and  if  these  are  beyond 
our  direct  comprehension,  what  shall 
be  said  of  the  space  beyond? 

Inconceivable  immensity  has  thus 
added  to  it  space  still  more  immense, 
through  which  the  stellar  system 
moves,  probably  in  an  orbit  of  its 
own.  If  we  are  only  vivified  miner- 
als.our  sense  of  nothingness  as  a  part  of 
this  vast  creation,  should  sink  us  still 
lower,  in  our  own  estimation. 

Necessarily  the  first  steps  in  the 
origin  of  matter  were  the  production 
of  the  simple  substances.  These  be- 
ing originated  in  the  form  of  prim- 
ordial atoms,  were  at  the  same  time 
endowed  with  affinities  for  combina- 
tion. The  development  of  the  ma- 
terial universe  in  its  present  condi- 
tion, might  be  effected  by  laws  im- 
pressed upon  those  few  substances. 

Such  a  mode  of  action  is  aptly  ex- 
pressed by  the  word  "  evolution,'"  a 
process  wholly  different  from  a  direct 
creative  act. 

Such  an  act  is  so  clearly  superhu- 
man and  supernatural,  that  man 
could  never  comprehend  it  without 
the  aid  of  an  outside  intelligence;  nor 
the  origin  of  vegetable  life  or  animal 
life  from  inanimate  or  dead  matter. 
No  mortal  has  professed  to  have  the 
capacity  to  conceive  of  the  process  of 
a  primordial  creation. 


All  modes  are  alike  unfathomable 
i  and  so  is  the  idea  of  annihilation  of 
|  matter.  But  of  the  fact  of  creation 
i  there  can  be  no  doubt. 

We  can  also  conceive  of  an  origin- 
|  ating  agent  or  force,  and  that  quali- 
I  ties  could  be  impressed  on  matter  by 
it  such  as  are  familiar  to  us.  These 
qualities  acting  with  regularity 
through  vast  periods  of  time  for  val- 
uable ends  clearly  indicate  an  inten- 
tion. 

The  earliest  known  condition  of 
matter  is  the  nebulous  mass  of  La 
Place,  when  metals  and  metalloids 
existed  in  the .  state  of  vapor.  It  is 
universally  admitted  that  gravitation 
was  inherent  in  this  mass,  and  that  it 
had  a  motion  of  rotation.  By  mere 
cooling  and  gravity  there  would  be  a 
general  condensation.  In  a  rotating 
body,  condensation  produces  an  in- 
crease of  its  angular  velocity.  As- 
tronomers now  hold  with  Hersehel 
and  La  Place,  that  as  the  revolving 
nebula  increased  in  velocity  of  revolu- 
tion, its  outer  portions  would  be 
thrown  off  as  separate  bodies,  becom- 
ing stars. 

Probably  the  nebulous  mass  em- 
braced the  entire  space  now  occupied 
by  the  stellar  system.  It  probably 
had  a  regular  motion  in  a  vast  orbit, 
returning  to  itself  like  those  of  the 
planets.  Should  that  theory  be  true, 
the  disrupted  portions  would  move  in 
orbits,  forming  a  celestial  group,  such 
as  we  behold.  This  is  the  teaching 
of  science.  ^  The  time  required  for  a 
single  period  of  revolution  exceeds 
five  millions  of  years. 

It  is  settled  by  astronomy  that  the 
stars  have  a  motion  in  regard  to  each 
other,  which  is  being  studied  with 
great  interest. 

As  the  process  of  condensation  went 


EVOLUTION  IN  THE  PLANETARY  AND  STELLAR  WORLD. 


on,  chemical  action  and  segregation, 
which  belong  to  the  fixed  properties 
of  matter,  became  practicable;  and 
new  solids  and  compounds  would  be 
evolved  under  pre-existing  laws. 

As  consolidation  progressed,  chemi- 
cal action  would  be  intensified,  and 
consequently  galvanism  and  electrici- 
ty. No  new  qualities  were  necessary 
in  the  existing  molecules,  but  only 
better  opportunities  of  action.  All 
the  simple  substances  known  to  us 
formed  that  primordial  nebulous  body. 
None  have  been  originated  since. 
When  sulphur  and  oxygen  are  brought 
into  contact,  they  unite  not  from  se- 
lection or  choice,  but  from  the  effect 
of  natural  law  with  which  they  were 
from  the  first  endowed.  If  this  pro- 
cess is  a  mode  of  self  or  individual  ac- 
tion it  cannot  be  distinguished  from 
self-creation,  which  requires  a  mental 
entity  and  volition  somewhere.  With 
this  there  is  necessarily  a  power  of 
choice,  and  instead  of  uniting  in 
atomic  weights  with  fixed  proportions, 
which  are  eternal,  they  might  vary  in 
different  ages  or  in  the  same  age. 
Any  theory  which  ignores  a  designing 
author,  by  whom  these  qualities  are 
impressed  upon  the  atoms  at  their 
birth,  must  contemplate  an  endless 
series  of  new  impressions. 

Such  is  the  present  state  of  knowl- 
edge among  those  best  qualified  to 
know.  The  same  process  in  the  de- 
velopment of  each  star  or  sun.  in  due 
time  resulted  in  the  formation  of 
planets  and  their  satellites,  which,  in 
the  case  of  this  earth  at  least,  became 
habitable.  Thus  qualities  inherent 
in  the  primitive  globe,  might  be 
transmitted  to  the  planets,  resulting 
in  an  atmosphere,  oceans,  strata  of 
rocks,  and  mineral  deposits.  When 
that  stage  wras  reached,  both  vegeta- 
ble and  animal  life  became  possible. 
Evolution  and  development  are  thus 
far  possible  and  reasonable.  At  this 
point  materialists  propose  to  enlarge 
their  meaning,  so  as  to  embrace  a 
self-vitalizing  power  of  matter  hith- 


I  erto  without  vitality.  The  crystalli- 
zation of  minerals  had  hitherto  been 
|  the  nearest  approach  to  vital  force,  and 
this  action  is  galvanic  and  chemical. 
In  the  order  of  events,  vegetation 
preceded  those  animal  existences, 
which  belong  to  the  lower  and  less 
perfect  phases  of  life. 

Coupled  with  the  doctrine  of  self- 
evolution  or  self-development,  as  used 
in  natural  science.  i°  the  denial  of  an 
:  intelligent  First  Cause. 

This  doctrine  teaches  evolution  car- 
ried to  the  extent  of  self-creation. 
We  can  conceive  of  the  impress  of 
such  qualities  upon  matter,  for  a  pur- 
■  pose,  but  the  conception  of  a  purpose 
or  plan  without  a  thinking  agent  is 
j  impossible. 

Materialistic  evolution  requires  a 
|  universe  without  a  head.  It  is  as 
i  fundamental  to  that  system  of  ethics, 
I  that  the  vast  celestial  mechanism 
|  should  have  no  mental  contriver,  as  it 
1  is  to  the  self-development  of  life.  It 
|  is  equally  necessary  to  the  doctrine  of 
!  the  origin  of  man  by  self-evolution. 
Behind  all  these  propositions,  is  the 
negation  of  an  active  deity,  in  any 
!  and  all  natural  laws  and  processes. 

Metamorpliism. 

The  Darwinian  doctrine  of  the  "  Or- 

j  igin  of  species  V   covers  only  a  limited 

field  in  the  broad  domain  of  evolution. 

Cosmogenic  evolution  was  not  one 

of  Darwin's  studies.    This  lies  far  back 

of  animal  and    vegetable   life.     After 

the   stars    and    planets    hud   assumed 

form,  and  had  taken  up   their  orbits, 

]  their  materials  continued  to  change  in 

!  texture,  a  process  that  is  expressed  bv 

k,metamorphism."  which  is  still  going 

]  on  in  the  rocky  beds  of  this  planet, 

presenting  another  broad  field   of  the 

;  effects  of  change.     Where  it  will  end 

I  no  scientist  can   foretell.     There  are 

I  numerous  instances   where  its   effects 

i  are  visible,  but  the  cause  is  not.   When 

molten  metals  or  stone  are  allowed  to 

cool  they  become  solid  and  crystalline. 

This  changed  condition   is  due  to  no 


EVOLUTION   IN  TIIK  PLANETARY  AND  STELLAR  WORLD. 


new  qualities,  but  to  the  action  of 
those  of  which  they  were  invested  at 
their  origin.  Bars  of  wrought  iron 
of  a' brittle  or  crystalline  texture  have 
been  known,  in  the  course  of  years, 
to  become  more  ductile  and  fibrous. 
Probably  they  formed  a  galvanic  bat- 
tery with  magnetic  currents. 

A  chain  composed  of  large  links 
was  put  on  an  inclined  plane  in  a  coal 
mine  at  Mineral  Ridge,  near  Miles,  in 
Trumbull  Co.,  in  Ohio.  To  make  it 
take  hold  better  the  engineer  cast  on 
each  link  a  round  ball  of  iron.  The 
effect  was  to  change  the  fibrous  char- 
acter of  the  links,  and  render  them  so 
crystalline  that  they  broke  and  became 
useless.  Many  years  since,  on  Center 
street,  Cleveland,  Ohio,  there  was  a 
lime-kiln  sunk  in  the  blue  laminated 
clay  of  this  vicinity.  It  was  located 
about  15  rods  west  of  the  bridge  across 
the  Cuyahoga  river. 

After  the  abandonment  of  the  kiln 
I  found  that  the  lamination  of  the 
blue  clay,  which  was  originally  hor- 
izontal, presenting  its  edges  to  the 
heat  of  the  kiln,  had  become  vertical 
and  parallel  to  its  curve.  The  change 
extended  eight  or  ten  inches  outward, 
forming  a  true  slate,  less  and  less 
laminated  away  from  the  kiln. 

I  have  a  specimen  of  kidney  iron- 
ore  from  the  mines  near  Zoar,  Ohio, 
which  was  compact  before  it  was  cal- 
cined, except  on  the  exterior,  where 
there  were  concentric  layers.  When 
deposited  it  was  a  compact  carbonate 
of  iron,  altered  to  an  oxide  externally, 
which  gave  it  the  name  of  t;  shell  ore  " 
among  furnace  men.  After  calcina- 
tion in  a  large  pile  at  the  yard  of  the 
furnace  of  Ford,  Howard  &  Co.,  in 
Akron,  Ohio,  there  were  a  number  of 
pieces  which  assumed  the  form  of 
small  columns,  radiating  from  a  cen- 
ter, like  miniature  basaltic  pillars. 
The  last  two  instances  were  due  to 
prolonged  heat  below  the  melting 
point.  Such  are  a  few  among  many 
examples. 

Nearly  all  the  slaty  rocks  of  the 


world  have  undergone  metamorphism 
from  some  cause,  changing  the  lami- 
nation and  segregating  mineral  masses, 
veins  and  beds  of  quartz.  In  the 
Green  Mountain  range  of  Vermont 
the  slates  and  the  limestones  show 
similar  changes  from  the  Canada  line 
to  New  Jersey.  From  fossiliferous 
limestone  the  finest  of  marble  was  pro- 
duced by  natural  processes.  These 
are  instances  of  slow  but  widespread 
changes  embracing  the  universe,  and 
which  in  part  come  under  our  obser- 
vation .  Mi neral  vein s,  and  most  forms 
of  mineral  deposits,  can  be  referred  to 
this  universal  law,  which  must  have 
had  a  design  and  a  designer.  The 
first  processes  are  part  of  a  system, 
each  having  a  bearing  upon  the  next, 
throughout  the  series.  An  inspiration 
runs  through  the  whole,  which  ma- 
terialists call,  nature  or  natural  law, 
while  they  close  their  eyes  and  their 
mental  perception  to  the  fact  of  an 
originator. 

The  most  delicate  galvanic  action 
was  connected  with  dynamical  dis- 
turbances, all  pointing  to  the  concen- 
tration of  metals  in  bodies  that  man 
could  appropriate.  Metallic  segrega- 
tion in  veins,  beds  and  masses  is  more 
conspicuous  in  mountain  ranges, 
where  fissures  are  most  numerous  and 
electrical  activity  is  greatest. 

Such  laws  of  development  are 
traceable  to  the  remote  past,  before 
the  deposition  of  sedimentary  rocks, 
and  thence  forward  to  the  present 
hour. 

Geologists  explain  the  origin  of 
mineral  coal,  another  beneficent  gift, 
to  the  race,  by  means  of  a  tropical 
atmosphere,  in  all  parts  of  the  earth, 
not  due  to  the  tropics  or  confined  to 
any  latitude.  Before  this  planet  had 
lost  all  its  external  heat,  the  seas 
were  at  a  temperature  too  high  for 
air-breathing  animals,  and  were  en- 
veloped in  dense  clouds  of  vapor.  The 
atmosphere  was  charged  with  carbon- 
ic acid,  and  thus,  at  the  ocean  level, 
trees,  ferns,  and  mosses  sprang  up  of 


EVOLUTION  IN  THE  PLANETARY  AND  STELLAR  WORLD. 


gigantic  size  and  rapid  growth.  This 
astonishing  vegetation,  when  buried 
by  sedimentary  strata,  became  car- 
bonized and  preserved  for  our  benefit. 

It  would  be  very  instructive  to  re- 
produce the  theories  of  geologists  in 
regard  to  the  cause  of  metamorphism, 
but  they  are  so  numerous  and  so  vari- 
ous that  too  much  space  would  be  re- 
quired. 

The  United  States  Geological  Sur- 
vey has  for  many  years  been  engaged 
upon  the  mines  of  precious  metals  in 
Nevada,  California,  Colorado  and  the 
Rocky  Mountain  region.  Every  re- 
source of  modern  science  has  been 
brought  to  bear  upon  both  the  practical 
and  theoretical  aspects  of  those  won- 
derful mineral  deposits.  A  brief  ref- 
erence to  the  government  reports  will 
be  interesting  as  an  instance  of  the 
power  and  universality* of  metamor- 
phism in  the  texture  of  rocks.  These 
learned  investigators,  after  the  most 
patient  examination,  agree  that  the 
mineral  concentrations  are  due  to  that 
cause. 

On  the  cause  of  these  changes  they 
express  themselves  with  great  caution, 
although  they  are  among  the  world 
wide  instances  of  this  inscrutable 
agent.  They  represent  that  there  is 
great  complexity,  and  that  the  pro- 
cesses of  mineralization  occupied  a 
length  of  time  beyond  conception. 
Sir  Chas.  Lyell  held  finally  to  the  con- 
clusion that  all  the  changes  observed 
in  geology  might  be  accounted  for  by 
visible  causes  now  in  operation,  acting 
through  immense  periods  of  time. 

DEVELOPMENT    <>F    TERRESTRIAL    ELEC- 
TRICITY'. 

Reference  is  seldom  made  to  what 
is  evidently  a  general  cause  of  elec- 
trical excitement  or  disturbance,  one 
of  the  Hnest  examples  of  self-regula- 
tion in  nature.  These  manifestations 
accompany,  ami  therefore  must  de- 
pend upon  the  unequal  distribution  of 
heat.  In  this  way,  by  a  universal 
law  of  change,  as  general  and  appar- 


ent as  that  of  gravitation,  the  normal 
equilibrium  of  terrestrial  electricity  is 
disturbed.  In  some  of  its  phases  the 
electrical  force  is  thus  put  in  motion, 
currents  are  formed,  concentrations 
take  place,  and  discharges  occur,  visi- 
ble in  the  form  of  lightning. 

It  must  be  a  material  substance  or 
it  could  not  produce  momentum,  ex- 
isting throughout  this  planet  and 
doubtless  throughout  the  material 
universe. 

The  fact  that  in  the  air,  the  water, 
and  the  earth  there  is  a  perpetual  dif- 
ference of  temperature,  no  one  will 
question.  In  the  atmosphere  it  is  the 
cause  of  motion,  from  the  mildest 
breeze  to  the  most  furious  tornadoes. 
It  affects  the,  quantity  of  invisible 
moisture  and  the  visible  rain-fall. 
Electrical  action  is  excited  by  the 
daily  changes  of  temperature,  particu- 
larly when  the  sun  passes  the  meridi- 
ans, and  on  a  more  extended  scale  by 
its  annual  movement   in   declination. 

During  the  warm  months  in  every 
latitude  there  are  local  thunderstorms, 
whirlpools  and  waterspouts,  which 
generally  occur  in  the  afternoon, 
when  the  solar  effect  is  greatest.  As 
the  sun  approaches  or  departs  from 
the  solstices,  it  carries  with  it  a  series 
of  storms,  which  are  generally  called 
equinoctial.  The  currents  of  the 
ocean  are  compounded  largely  of  the 
differences  in  heat,  between  the  equa- 
torial and  solar  regions,  and  the 
effects  of  the  equally  extensive  cur- 
rents of  the  atmosphere,  due  to  the 
same  cause.  These  general  and  local 
variations  cause  tin;  atmospherical 
and  terrestrial  electricity  to  vary, 
which  affects  the  germination  and 
growth  of  seeds  and  of  plants,  and 
the  assimilation  of  food  in  animals. 
In  the  mass  of  the  earth  this  simple 
but  universal  operation  is  and  ever 
has  been  producing  its   results. 

Between  the  molten  central  parts 
<>f  the  earth  and  its  solid  exterior, 
there  is  a  perpetual  difference  of  tem- 
perature, producing  galvanic  currents, 


EVOLUTION   IN  THE  PLANETARY   AND  STELLAR   WORLD. 


which  act;  upon  minerals  in  solution; 
the  consequences  are  crystallization, 
segregation;  the  formation  of  veins, 
and  the  concentration  of  metals  in 
various  forms.  Magnetism,  both  an- 
imal and  mineral,  may  be  traced  to 
the  same  source,  over  which  there 
may  be  some  external  influence  from 
other  planets,  and  even  from  the  fixed 
stars.  The  nervous  systems  of  ani- 
mals and  plants  are  so  constituted  as 
to  perforin  electrical  functions  which 
vary  with  the  daily  changes  of  the 
atmosphere. 

The  difficulties  which  present  them- 
selves to  many  minds  in  finding  a  suf- 
ficient mechanical  power,  may  be 
overcome  by  considering  this  wide- 
spread effect  of  changes  in  tempera- 
ture, as  the  sun  moves  to  and  from 
the  equator  in  declination,  causing  its 
heat  to  vary  every  day.  When  it  has 
reached  its  greatest  northern  declina- 
tion, it  presents  itself  to  the  earth 
every  succeeding  day,  with  the  warm- 
est belt,   receding  towards  the  south. 

Inequality  of  temperature  pervades 
all  the  materials  of  this  earth,  and 
thus  there  is  everywhere  an  unfailing 
source  of  motion.  Nearly  all  the  en- 
ergies of  nature  may  be  traced  to  this 
quiet    agent,   whose    effects    are    at 


times  prodigious.  It  realizes  the 
conceptions  of  perpetual  motion. 

On  the  side  of  magnetism  we  may 
consider  the  earth  as  an  incessant 
exciter,  through  the  unequally  heated 
state  of  its  central  parts  compared 
with  its  surface.  On  the  surface  the 
equatorial  zones  are  always  at  a  higher 
temperature  than  the  temperate,  and 
the  temperate  than  the  arctic.  This 
all-pervading  cause,  though  at  the 
foundation  of  nearly  all  the  activities 
of  the  material  world,  is  so  gentle  and 
common  that  it  is  not  duly  considered 
even  by  philosophers. 

The  difference  between  a  self-regu- 
lating apparatus,  like  terrestrial  elec- 
tricity, and  a  self-originating  one,  is 
plain  enough.  A  moving  force  being 
applied,  the  printing  press,  steam  en- 
gine or  hundreds  of  other  mechanical 
contrivances  may  each  regulate  itself 
more  or  less  completely.  It  was  never 
claimed  that  this  is  an  evidence  that 
they  are  their  own  originators.  Science 
is  important  and  philosophy  valuable, 
but  the  world  is  not  ruled  by  them. 
Natural  science,  like  natural  philoso- 
phy, cannot  be  determined  by  opinions 
or  hypothesis.  Here  nothing  is  settled 
that  does  not  rest  on  facts  or  demon- 
strations based  upon  them. 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 


in. 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  INVOLUNTARY  ACTIVITIES. 


BY  COLONEL  CHARLES  WHITTLESEY 


There  are  involuntary  movements  in 
animal  bodies,  among  which  are  the 
circulation  of  the  blood:  respiration, 
digestion  and  circulation  of  fluids. 
On  the  mental  or  spiritual  side,  there 
are  like  activities,  that  are  not  the  re- 
sults of  the  will,  such  as  dreams,  vis- 
ions, and  memories.  From  whence 
come  these  unbidden  realities?  Are 
they  natural  or  supernatural?  Hu- 
man volition  does  not  originate  them. 

By  whom  were  they  first  put  in  ac- 
tion? The  theist  and  the  atheist 
alike,  refer  such  manifestations  to 
some  form  of  law. 

Here  the  atheist  rests,  leaving  the 
mystery  of  their  origin  unanswered. 

To  a  believer  in  a  Creator,  his 
modes  of  action  through  nature  are 
of  limited  interest,  compared  to  the 
fundamental  power  underlying  nat- 
ure. 

Materialists,  of  the  Haeckel  school, 
fall  back  upon  the  impossibility  of 
miracles;  that  is,  of  the  direct  action 
of  a  divine  power.  .  j 

Can  there  be  a  broader  miracle  than  I 
the  origin   of  matter?     Can  there  be 
a  more  miraculous  event  than  the  vi- 
talizing of  the  flowers  of  plants? 

There  are  scientists  who  believe 
that  all  forms  of  the  vital  forces 
should  be  attributed  to  electricity. 
If  so,  electricity  has  supernatural  at- 
tributes, the  authorship  of  which 
must  be  in  itself,  or  iu  some  superior 
power  not  human.  Where  is  the 
origin  of  electricity?  It  being  estab- 
lished or  admitted  that  there  is  a  cre- 
ating mental  power,  everything  relat- 
ing to  its  activities,  resembles  closelv 


the  miraculous.  It  is  not  less  so  be- 
cause it  applies  to  matter  in  the  con- 
dition of  minerals  and  plants,  than  to 
animal  and  mental  life.  The  latter 
presents  facts  that  are  more  difficult 
of  "  interpretation."  because  its  meta- 
morphoses are  more  numerous.  The 
mental  faculty  in  man  is  more  devel- 
oped than  in  the  oyster,  or  even  in 
the  anthropoid  apes. 

If  there  is  no  futurity  for  any  of 
them,  it  does  not  appear  to  be  import- 
ant, what  the  limit  of  progress  and 
change  may  be. 

In  the  economy  of  animal  life  there 
are  fluids,  by  which  medical  prescrip- 
tions are  carried  to  their  destination, 
and  by  which  digested  food,  reaches  the 
parts  for  which  it  is  designed. 

Involuntary  action  of  the  heart 
sends  the  blood  to  the  extremities, 
and  by  a  reverse  action  it  is  returned 
in  an  oxygenated  and  purified  condi- 
tion, through  the  veins,  to  go  perpet- 
ually on  the  same  mission.  The  mi- 
nute valves  of  the  bladder  and  the  per- 
spiration tubes  of  the  skin  act  in  the 
same  manner.  These  phenomena  co- 
operate for  the  same  common  purpose 
— the  maintenance  of  life.  Where  is 
the  sustaining  power  of  these  move- 
ments ? 

Did  those  complex  machines  origi- 
nate by  a  fiat  of  dead  matter?  If  so 
it  is  the  most  wonderful  of  miracles. 

Commencing  with  the  embryonic 
ova  of  the  animal  kingdom,  there  is  a 
line  or  law  of  development,  which  is 
uniform  within  each  genera.  The  law 
of  propagation  within  genera  is  equal- 
lv    fixed   and  universal,  but  does  not 


10 


SIGNIFICANCE    OF    INVOLUNTARY    ACTIVITIES. 


11 


overleap  the  limits  of  genera.  Over 
this  the  individuals  have  no  control, 
and  thus  wherever  that  control  lies, 
it  is  superhuman.  A  system  so  com- 
plex, ubiquitous  and  practical  is  moved 
not  by  man. 

The  origin  of  contagious  diseases  is 
not  clearly  defined  by  medical  experts, 
but  it  is  admitted  that  they  are  gen- 
erated under  certain  conditions  which 
occur  subject  to  established  law,  prob- 
ably by  the  circulation  of  microscopic 
growths  in  the  atmosphere  or  in  the 
water.  If  a  self-acting  machine  in- 
vented by  man,  capable  of  digesting 
food  should  be  shown  to  an  atheist  he 
would  discover  in  it  a  design. 

[n  all  latitudes  the  human  stomach 
performs  the  function  of  transmuting 
food  into  a  group  of  liquids  that  are 
absorbed  by  the  system  and  become 
bone,  horn,  sinew,  muscle,  &c,  con- 
stituting the  animal  body.  It  has 
been  observed  by  scientific  travelers 
in  all  parts  of  the  globe,  that  the  tem- 
perature of  the  stomach  in  man  is 
everywhere  the  same,  whether  he  re- 
sides in  the  arctic  or  the  torrid  zone; 
and  it  is  also  at  the  point  where  the 
gastrous  fluid  transforms  food  into 
nutrition  most  readily.  Is  this  in- 
voluntary process  an  unthought  of 
accident,  that  has  happened  in  precise- 
ly the  same  way  through  the  period 
that  men  have  existed? 

There  is  a  connection  between  heat 
and'  light,  and  a  vory  large  number  of 
involuntary  results  in  living  objects. 
Such  are  the  ciliary  movements,  and 
the  capillary  action  in  plants.  There 
are  many  scientists  who  believe  that 
heat  is  not  a  material  substance,  but 
a  condition  of  violent  activity  among 
material  molecules.  They  consider 
heat  and  force  to  be  convertible,  and 
thus  simplifying  a  large  class  of 
phenomena,  by  consolidation  through 
the  effect  of  inconceivably  rapid 
vibrations.  If  this  hypothesis  is  ten- 
able, it  makes  the  claim  of  a  plan,  as 
contrasted  with  chance  more  and  more 
palpable.     Thus  the   discoveries   and 


refinements  of  science,  point  persist- 
ently to  a  supreme  regulator  in  all  de- 
partments of  the  natural  world. 

Heat  and  its  opposite  or  negative 
cold,  though  not  a  substance,  play  an 
important  part  throughout  the  earth. 
Because  satisfactory  definitions  can- 
not be  formed,  as  to  their  modes  of 
action,  they  are  none  the  less  matters 
of  fact,  observed  by  every  observer. 
Heat  was  certainly  primordial,  or  at 
least  coeval  with  matter.  This  and 
light  have  relations  to  each  other 
that  are  visible  wherever  there  is  life, 
animal  or  vegetable. 

To  refer  involuntary  action  to  the 
unthinkable  or  unknowable,  is  only 
an  ambiguous  mode  of  stating  that 
the  limit  of  human  perception  has 
been  reached.  Thosa  who  deny 
superhuman  inspiration,  encounter 
that  limit  in  thousands  of  instances 
which  they  are  very  loth  to  admit. 

Memory,  the  most  mysterious  of 
our  faculties  located  in  the  brain,  is 
largely  involuntary,  and  also  num- 
berless unbidden  thoughts,  that  rush 
through  our  minds.  The  impressions 
they  leave  engraved  or  photographed 
on  the  nervous  ganglia  for  future  use, 
are  wholly  involuntary.  Reason  or 
the  act  of  reasoning,  may  be  wholly 
voluntary  and  subject  to  the  will,  but 
without  memory  would  be  of  little 
use. 

If  human  existence  is  in  some 
form  eternal,  this  must  continue  to 
be  the  most  important  faculty,  and 
subject  forever  to  fixed  mental  laws. 
Such  control  must  lie  outside  of  hu- 
manity, inasmuch  as  it  did  not  origi- 
nate there. 

Man  is  frequently  conceited,  but  is 
nevertheless  painfully  impotent,  never 
having  been  able  to  make  a  law  of 
material  nature  or  to  change  one,  or 
to  comprehend  any  of  them  perfectly. 
His  efforts  to  place  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  universe,  present  the 
most  ridiculous  of  all  pretensions. 
Over  his  entry  into  the  world  he  had 
no  control  and  has  no  foreknowledge 


12 


SIGNIFICANCE    OF    INVOLUNTARY    ACTIVITIES. 


of  the  time  or  maimer  of  his  exit. 
His  plans  for  life  may  at  any  hour 
be  disappointed  by  death.  Beyond 
the  mortal  life  with  infinitesimally 
few  exceptions,  his  name,  influence 
and  authority  are  lost,  even  under  the 
most  carefully  drawn  testaments. 
Whether  he  originates  by  the  agency 
of  mineral  or  animal  bodies;  sea  foam, 
star  dust,  protoplasm,  monads,  as- 
cidians  or  acaria,  he  is  in  the  future 
more  physically  helpless  than  at  his 
birth.  During  life  his  impress  upon 
other  men  is  so  near  to  nothing,  that 
he  is  at  once  forgotton  by  the  millions 
who  live  on.  Yet  if  he  makes  one 
valuable  discovery  in  nature,  he  hopes 
for  enduring  fame  in  a  future,   the 


existence  of  which  he  denies.  A 
stone  dropped  in  mid-ocean  floes  not 
sooner  disappear,  but  there  are  numer- 
ous philosophers  who  are  not  satisfied 
with  the  make-up  of  the  universe,  es- 
pecially its  moral  features.  Number- 
less books  have  been  written  to  prove 
that  as  individuals,  they  should  not  be 
subjected  to  any  power  higher  than 
themselves,  and  that  they  are  capably 
of  improving  everything  within  the 
domain  of  ethics.  This  is  the  aim 
and  such  are  the  pretensions  of  "  Syn- 
thetical Philosophy,1'  ;t  Positive  Phi- 
losophy," and  "  Scientific  Philosophy" 
in  many  books  under  many  names, 
admitting  nothing  beyond  matter. 


THEISM  AND  AT 


IN  SCIENCE. 


xv. 


MOSAIC  COSMOGONY  MORE  ALLEGORICAL  THAN  LITERAL. 


BY  COLONEL  CHARLIES  WHITTLESEY. 


It  is  evidently  not  the  purpose  of 
the  sacred  books  of  the  Hebrews  to 
teach  science.  Their  objects  are  of  a 
moral  and  religious  character,  with 
only  incidental  references  to  secular 
knowledge  by  way  of  illustration. 
What  relates  to  chronology,  general 
history,  geology,  and  natural  philoso- 
phy, is  not  more  prominent  than  is 
necessary  for  elucidation.  Tf  this 
view  is  correct,  it  follows  that  the 
cosmogony  of  Moses,  in  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis,  was  not  intended 
as  a  treatise  on  cosmical  events.  A 
construction  more  in  harmony  with 
the  great  purposes  of  morality,  theol- 


ogy  and   religion,   ] 


through 


the  Hebrew  records,  than  the  secular 
learning  of  those  times.  Such  dis- 
coveries were  left  to  the  intelligence, 
genius  and  industry  of  mankind,  and 
which  are  even  yet  feebly  developed. 
Under  such  an  aspect,  religion  is 
belittled,  and  science  not  weakened. 
Their  domains '  are  better  defined 
and  separated ;  unless  where  they  nec- 
essarily support  each  other.  It  is 
nearly  fifty  years  since  a  sharp  con- 
test was  commenced  between  scien- 
tists and  theologians  on  presumed  dis- 
crepancies, based  largely  upon  the 
first  chapter  of  Genesis,  coupled  with 
a  theory  that  there  was  an  intent  to 
describe  physical  events  from  the 
stand-point  of  natural  science.  Under 
a  different  hypothesis  the  literary 
world  might  have  been  spared  a  large 
part  of  the  books  that  have  been  pub- 
lished, to  establish  or  to  overthrow 
contradictions.  Science  has  not  been 
wholly  a  loser,  because  all  forms  of 
investigation  bring  out  valuable 
truths;  even  those  which  fail  to  es- 
tablish the  point  at  issue.  Religion 
has  been  the  greatest  sufferer. 


With  this  distinction  in  mind,  let 
us  compare  the  record  of  nature,  as 
far  as  it  is  understood,  with  the  descrip- 
tive parts  of  the  first  chapter,  and 
show  how  far  they  correspond. 

The  Order  of  Cosmical  Events  in  Genesis 
compared  with  Science. 

Chapter  Jf,  Verse  1. 

"  In  the  beginning  God  created  the 
heaven  and  the  earth." 

No  time  or  period  of  creation  or 
description  of  the  mode  of  operation 
is  given  in  this  verse. 

The  word  "create"  is  found  in  the 
first  chapter,  onlv  in  the  verses  1,  21 
and  27.  In  verses  11.  12,  20  and  24, 
the  earth  and  the  waters  "  bring 
forth";  and  in  verse  third  and  in 
several  others,  the  word  "  made  "  is  em- 
ployed. These  differences  cannot  be 
accidental.  They  include  processes 
not  identical  with  a  divine  creative 
fiat,  and  cover  all  forms  of  origin  or 
evolution  by  law.  No  reference  is 
made  to  the  primitive  condition  of 
matter. 

Verne  2. 

"And  the  earth  was  without  form 
and  void,  and  darkness  was  upon  the 
face  of  the  deep,  and  the  spirit  of  God 
moved  over  the  waters." 

There  are  differences  of  translation 
or  of  the  copies  of  this  chapter,  which, 
however,  are  not  very  essential  in  a 
descriptive  sense,  and  must  be  left  for 
Biblical  critics  to  deal  with.  In  the 
authorized  English  version,  First  of 
Chronicles  14-15,  the  spirit  of  God  is 
represented  as  moving  in  the  tops  of 
mulberry  trees.  On  this  passage  there 
are  scholars  who  hold  that  the 
Hebrew  expression  for  wind,  is  nearly 
the  same  for  the  Spirit  of  God;  and 
would    be  a  better   translation.     An 


18 


14 


MOSAIC  COSMOGONY  MORE  ALLEGORICAL  THAN  LITERAL. 


authorized  Catholic  Version  of  1778 
substitutes  something  personal  or  ma- 
terial, and  different  from  the  above. 

The  recent  English  version  has  not 
changed  the  reading  of  that  of  King 
James  in  verse  two.  Is  it  not  possi- 
ble that  among  the  ancient  orientals 
wind  represented  the  breath  of  the 
deity? 

Verses  one  and  two  were  probably 
one  sentence  in  the  original,  and 
should  be  construed  as  having  that  re- 
lation to  each  other.  If  such  is  their 
relation,  their  phraseology  embraces 
all  of  that  vast  period  from  the  crea- 
tion of  simple  substances  in  a  nebu- 
lous condition,  and  the  organization 
t>f  the  celestial  system. 

The  earth  was  in  its  orbit  and  solid- 
ified; at  least  there  were  some  igneous 
rocks,  and  possibly  some  sedimentary 
ones.  It  was  enveloped  in  darkness, 
probably  in  clouds,  resting  upon  wa- 
ters which  submerged  most  of  the . 
solid  parts. 

Such  a  condition  of  the  earth  is 
here  very  well  described,  but  vegeta- 
ble and  animal  life  cannot  be  inferred. 
When  the  leaves  of  the  book  of  na- 
ture are  opened,  traces  of  alga?  and  of 
low  forms  of  marine  life  are  discov- 
ered, which  are  as  ancient  as  the  Cam- 
brian, not  mentioned  in  this  chapter. 
All  references  to  the  changes  which 
occurred  in  the  great  nebula,  occupy- 
ing incomprehensible  periods  of  time, 
and  finally  resulting  in  the  formation 
of  planets,  are  omitted. 

Verses  3  to  5  inclusive. 

These  contain  the  first  mention  of 
light,  and  the  first  cosmical  day.  It 
is  not  yet  determined  by  scientists 
whether  light  is  a  material  substance. 
It  may  be  only  an  emanation  produc- 
ing vision,  by  means  of  rapid  vibra- 
tions. If  so  it  is  the  opposite  or  neg- 
ative of  darkness,  as  cold  is  of  heat. 

The  late  Professor  Guyot  enter- 
tained a  theory,  that  the  light  here 
referred  to  was  not  solar  but  tempor- 
ary, either  electrical  or  phosphorescent. 


Such  is  not  a  physical  impossibility, 
but  presents  one  of  very  many  forced 
constructions  of  the  Hebrew  records:  to 
meet  hypothesis  of  concordance  or  of 
discordance  with  natural  science. 

If  light  is  not  a  material  substance, 

it  is  incapable  of  creation,   but  it  is 

capable   of   being    ;*  brought    forth." 

|  Nothing  but  light  is  here   introduced 

i  to  account  for  the  evening  and    the 

I  morning   of  the   first   day.     A    very 

;  common  feature  of  Eastern  literature 

is  the  fact  that  the  order  of  narration 

|  does  not  necessarily  follow  the  order 

|  of  events.     There  are  such  discrepan- 

j  cies  in  the  Mosaic  records. 

The  earth  could  not  have  existed 
i  prior  to  the  sun  and  stars.  It  has, 
I  however,  been  mentioned  and  par- 
I  tialhr  described,  as  in  existence  be- 
I  fore  the  firmanent  and  the  celestial 
I  bodies.  There  are  possibilities  that 
I  the  descriptions  may  be  misplaced; 
j  but  it  is  safer  to  leave  the  difficult}' 
|  unsolved  than  to  resort  to  violent  so- 
|  lutions. 

Through  this  chapter  there  is  a 
clear  moral  and  religious  purpose,  on 
which  the  Hebrew  system  is  based. 
It  is  manifestly  not  an  attempt  to 
teach  mankind  science,  but  moral  laic, 
both  by  direct  statements  and  by  the 
ancient  mode  of  allegories,  which  the 
Oriental  mind  took  in  by  intuition, 
more  readily  than  by  processes  of 
reasoning.  These  main  ethical  points 
are  the  existence  of  a  creating  power, 
acting  everywhere  directly  or  conse- 
quentially, and  therefore  a  supreme 
moral  ruler.  The  grouping  of  events 
into  seven  periods  or  days  inculcates 
another  fundamental  feature  of  the 
moral  law,  that  of  six  days  labor  to 
one  day  of  rest.      i 

Verses  0  to  8  inclusive,  -a  second 
day. 

An  expanse  or  firmament  appears 
above  the  waters,  implying  an  atmos- 
phere, clouds  and  a  sky.  Nothing 
else  is  done  during  this  period.  It 
was  occupied  not  in  creating,  making 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY  MORE  ALLEGORICAL  THAN  LITERAL. 


15 


or  bringing  forth  anything  new;  but 
in  providing  a  new  arrangement 
among  pre-existing  objects.  Hither- 
to there  has  been  placed  upon  the 
record,  very  little  that  is  specific  in  a 
descriptive  point  of  view;  showing 
how  little  importance  was  attached  to 
physical  information. 

Those  primeval  seas  must  have  de- 
posited sediments  which  may  have 
been  the  metamorphic  strata  of  the 
Laurentian  and  Huronian  eras. 

Whether  they  have  any  form  of 
marine  growth  is  yet  an  unsettled 
question. 

Verses  9  to  13 — Italian  Version. 

M  God  also  said,  let  the  waters  that 
are  under  the  heavens  be  gathered  to- 
gether unto  one  place  and  let  the  dry 
land  appear.     And  it  was  so  done. 

And  God  called  the  dry  land  earth, 
and  the  gathering  together  of  the 
waters  he  called  seas:  and  God  saw 
that  it  was  good.*' 

These  two  verses  in  a  natural  sense 
belong  to  those  of  the  second  day  or 
period,  presenting  no  fresh  forma- 
tions, but  only  movements,  that 
were  principally  mechanical. 

Verse  11. — M  And  he  said,  '  Let  the 
earth  "  bring  forth  "  the  green  herbs 
and  such  as  may  seed,  and  the  fruit 
tree  yielding  fruit  after  its  kind, 
which  may  have  seed  within  itself 
upon  the  earth/  and  it  was  done." 

Verse  12. — uAnd  the  earth  'brought 
forth'  the  green  herbs  and  such  as 
yielded  seed  according  to  its  kind,  and 
the  tree  that  beareth  fruit  having 
seed  each  one  according  to  its  kind, 
and  God  saw  that  it  was  good.  And 
the  evening  and  the  morning  were 
the  third  day." 

This  relation  corresponds  to  the  ob- 
served order  of  vegetable  life,  having 
precedence  to  that  which  is  animal. 
When  the  solid  land  rose  above  the 
seas,  it  must  have  presented  sedimen- 
tary beds,  in  which  are  evidences  of 
marine  growths  both  vegetable  and 
animal,  and  they,  by  implication  cov- 


er the  extensive  era  of  the  Cambrian, 
Silurian  and  Devonian  formations. 

The  mode  of  the  origin  of  land 
plants  and  fruit-producing  trees  is 
not  given,  except  by  the  agency  of 
Deity,  direct  or  indirect.  Original 
creation  is  not  here  intimated.  A 
most  important  phase  of  this  earth 
has  been  reached,  in  which  life  is 
possible  by  animated  beings,  but  the 
circumstances  of  this  interesting  pro- 
cess are  very  imperfectly  set  forth. 
The  question  is  not,  what  the  Creator 
knew  about  his  universe,  but  what  is 
expressed  in  this  chapter. 

Verses  14  to  19 — Fourth  day. 

"Lights  were  then  '  made '  in  the 
firmament  of  heaven,  to  divide  the 
day  and  the  night,  and  to  be  for  sea- 
sons, for  days  and  for  years. 

"A  great  light  to  rule  the  day,  aud 
a  lesser  light  to  rule  the  night,  and 
stars,  and  he  set  them  in  the  firma- 
ment of  heaven." 

Very  little  light  was  necessary  to 
the  existence  of  mollusks  or  other 
marine  invertebrates;  but  land  plants, 
producing  seed  and  fruit,  require  both 
solar  light  and  heat.  The  transac- 
tions of  the  fourth  period,  do  not  pur- 
port to  have  been  creative  acts.  Suns, 
comets,  planets  and  satellites,  may 
have  been  coursing  along  their  re- 
spective cycles  for  cosmical  ages;  be- 
fore the  atmosphere  of  the  earth,  the 
expanse  or  the  firmament,  permitted 
i  the  full  vivif}Ting  action  of  light  and 
heat  on  this  globe.  By  the  above  de- 
scription, they  were  then  set  in  order, 
to  stimulate  land  growths,  for  the  use 
of  beings  that  were  to  follow. 
Whether  this  vegetation  was  the  suc- 
cessor of  lower  forms  perfected  by  a 
law  of  evolution,  cannot  be  affirmed 
or  denied  on  this  record. 

Verses  20  to  23— fifth  day. 

wtAnd  God  said,  let  the  waters 
;  bring  forth  '  the  creeping  creatures 
having  life,  and  the  fowl  that  may  fly 
over  the  earth  under  the  firmament 
of  heaven." 


16 


MOSAIC  COSMOGONY  MORK  ALLEGORICAL  THAN    LITERAL. 


21.  u  And  God  l  created '  the  great 
whales,  and  ever3T  living  and  moving 
creature  which  the  waters  brought 
forth,  according  to  their  kinds;  and 
every  winged  fowl,  according  to  its 
kind/1 

•  22.  The  mission  of  marine  creature, 
was  to  "  multiply  and  fill  the  waters," 
and  of  the  birds  to  multiply  upon  the 
land. 

Life  is  here  first  brought  upon  the 
scene.  The  testimony  of  the  rocks  is 
explicit  in  regard  to  its  appearance  in 
the  archaic  strata  as  invertebrates; 
which  it  is  not  easy  to  separate  from 
the  vegetation  of  that  era. 

Materialists  now  claim  that  with- 
out divine  will  or  agency  direct  or  in- 
direct, life  was  evolved  from  marine 
jellies. 

Here  it  is  affirmed  that  every  living 
and  moving  thing  m  the  waters  was 
created.  The  description  is  clear  and 
comprehensive.  To  marine  vegetation 
there  is  no  reference  in  this  record  as 
it  has  reached  us,  nor  can  it  be  inferred 
by  a  fair  construction.  In  that  field 
there  is  a  vacancy  or  gap  which  must 
remain  a  blank. 

There  ma}'  have  been  lost  portions 
of  importance,  an  explanation  that 
can  merely  be  suggested,  not  acted 
upon. 

Other  Scriptural  breaks  are  discern- 
ible, where  the  same  difficulties  arise, 
which  must  be  left  for  future  investi- 
gation, and  are  entirely  distinct  from 
direct  discrepancies. 

Sixth  dag — remainder  of  chapter 
one,  verses  24  to  31. 

Verse  24.  "  Let  the  earth  bring 
forth  the  living  ceature  in  its  kind, 
cattle  and  creeping  things,  and  beasts 
of  the  earth,  according  to  their  kinds." 
.  Here  is  the  first  mention  of  land  or 
air  breathing  animals.  The  previous 
introduction  of  animal  life  in  the 
waters  corresponds  with  the  order  of 
geology,  wh3re  there  are,  first,  marine 
growths  algae  or  sea  weeds,  followed 
by  low  and  simple  invertebrates,  and 


these  by  vertebrates,  well  preserved  in 
the  stratified  rocks.  The  verse  ex- 
tends to  a  period  on  the  border,  be- 
tween the  Devonian  and  Carbonifer- 
ous, when  rank  swamp  growths  in 
brackish  waters  contended  with  de- 
ciduous and  evergreen   trees. 

Verse  26.  '•  And  God  '  made  '  the 
beasts  of  the  earth,  according  to  their 
kinds,  and  cattle  and  every  thing  that 
creepeth  upon  the  earth  after  its 
kind.1'  .  .  .  .  No  descriptive 
matter  is  here  added  to  verse  24.  Tt 
is  a  general  repetition. 

Verse  26.  "And  he  said  let  us  make 
man  in  our  own  image  and  likeness, 
and  let  him  have  dominion  over  the 
fishes  of  the  sea,  and  the  fowls  of  the 
air  and  the  beasts,  and  the  whole 
earth  and  every  creeping  creature  that 
moves  upon  the  earth." 

Verse  27.  "  And  God  created  man 
in  his  own  image,  created  he  him. 
male  and  female  created  he  them." 

This  completes  the  descriptive  por- 
tion of  the  chapter,  beginning  with 
the  cosmogony,  down  to  man;  whose 
remains  in  the  quartern ary  deposits 
are  well  known. 

It  is  the  first  introduction  of  fishes 
by  name,  which  have  left"  their  im- 
press upon  strata  as  ancient  as  the 
upper  silurian.  Here  the  word  repre- 
sents an  order,  in  the  same  manner  as 
the  words,  fowls  and  beasts,  are  put 
for  departments  of  the  animal  king- 
dom. 

When  it  is  considered  that  periods 
so  vast,  and  events  so  numerous  and 
complicated,  are  compressed  into  a 
part  of  one  chapter,  we  shall  cease  to 
expect  precision  of  description. 

The  general  coincidence  with  nat- 
ural history,  overshadows  the  minor 
|  differences.  The  defects  may  be  at- 
|  tributable  to  an  evident  intention  not 
i  to  introduce  science,  which  was  left 
j  to  the  exercise  of  powers  given  to 
men, 

A  moral  and  religious  intent  per- 
vades the  chapter  directly  and  allegor- 


MOSAIC  COSMOGONY  MORE  ALLEGORICAL  THAN  LITERAL. 


IT 


ically.  On  this  plan  of  interpretation 
the  Mosaic  theology  is  based,  and  all 
religious  theology. 

What  philological  force  should  he 
given  to  the  terms  "  created,11  4i  made  " 
and  **  brought  forth  "  is  not  well  set- 
tied  by  commentators.  Tf  they  are 
interchangeable  these  expressions  car- 
ry a  meaning  different  from  what 
would  result  from  separate  interpre- 
tations, but  they  would  still  have  a 
clear  relation  to  each  other  and  in- 
clude all  creations  and  all  processes 
of  formation  in  a  general  way. 

In  these  verses,  where  the  word 
create  is  not  used,  a  wide  door  is 
thrown  open  to  the  law  of  evolution, 
under  divine  guidance.  Only  the  ma- 
terial universe  is  said  to  be  created 
with  animal  and  finally  human  life. 

What  is  not  claimed  as  due  to  a 
creative  impulse  might  be  evolved 
without  departing  from  the  letter  of 
our  translation.  It  is  agreed  that  the 
days  are  not  literal  or  solar,  but  that 
the  Hebrew  original  means  a  period 
or  era  of  indeterminate  length.  The 
testimony  of  the  rocks  makes  inverte- 
brate life  the  most  ancient,  but  of  la- 
ter origin  than  vegetable  life 

In  the  march  of  cosmical  events, 
as  disclosed  in  nature,  there  are  three 
eras  or  epochs  that  make  a  clear  im- 
press upon  the  minds  of  all  those 
who  study  the  material  world,  Avhat- 
ever  individual  views  they  may  hold 
of  its  origin.  These  periods  will  be 
shown  below,  in  the  form  of  an  ab- 
stract, in  which  their  general  agree- 
ment with  the  physical  history  of  the 
first  chapter  of  Genesis  will  appear. 

These  periods  are  not  sharply  de- 
fined, either  in  Genesis  or  geology; 
but  there  is  a  general  resemblance 
which  is  remarkable.  The  Mosaic 
account  is  generally  regarded  as  more 
than  three  thousand  years  old;  and 
when  it  is  considered  that  neither  in 
Egyptian.  Greek,  or  Latin  records 
prior  to  Christ  there  is  to  be  found  so 
comprehensive   an    exhibit   of   those 


great  cosmical  periods,  where  shall 
we  look  for  the  inspiration  of  chap- 
ter One,  in  a  scientific  point  of 
view?  Its  manifest  purpose  was 
moral  and  religious,  only  a  few 
words  and  phrases  being  de- 
voted to  purely  descriptive  matter. 
In  geology  and  in  science,  there  was 
not  enough  known  at  the  beginning 
of  the  present  century  on  which  t»> 
base  the  groups  of  three  formatory 
periods,  which  can  even  now  be  done 
with  only  a  reasonable  approach  to 
the  truth.  Each  era  holds  to  the 
progress  that  had  been  made  previous- 
ly;  and  each  succeeding  era  makes 
a  wonderful  stride  beyond  the  past. 

In  the  Mosaic  account  there  are 
breaks,  also  repetitions  and  omissions, 
but  these  are  not  discrepancies. 

The  latter  can  only  be  based  upon 
direct  statements,  that  conflict  with 
each  other  or  with  nature.  Consider- 
ing the  breadth  of  the  subject,  and 
the  small  space  devoted  to  what  is  in- 
cidental and  subordinate  to  moral  law 
and  religious  purposes,  which  are  as 
much  more  important  than  nature,  as 
moral  forces  are  superior  to  mechanical 
ones,  breaks  and  deficiencies  are  un- 
avoidable. 

The  groups  are  first,  —  an  azoic 
period,  where  dead  matter  pervaded, 
the  universe,  in  a  formative  condition. 

Group  second. — Greater  activity,  a 
rapid  deposit  of  sediment,  also  vegeta- 
ble and  animal  life  stimulated  and 
quickened  under  the  new  order  of 
things. 

Group  Third.  —  Great  and  rapid 
change;  the  mollusks  flourishing 
as  in  the  Cambrian  Era  until  now, 
also  marine  plants,  fishes,  birds;  land 
animals  and  land  plants;  all  holding 
their  own;  mammals,  reptiles  and 
men,  all  becoming  more  universal  and 
powerful  throughout  the  earth. 

The  boundary  of  this  grouping  is 
not  always  clearly  defined  in  detail, 
but  with  minor  breaks  and  omissions 
is    readily    recognized.      These    defi- 


18 


MOSAIC  COSMOGONY  MORE  ALLEGORICAL  THAN   LITERAL. 


ciencies  tend  to  confirm  the  belief 
that  secular  instruction  was  not  the 
main  design  of  this  chapter.  A  pre- 
disposition for  criticism,  and  the  dis- 
covery of  difficulties  where  synthetic 
and  general  features  are  pushed  aside, 
can  rind  material  for  discussion  in 
this  as  in  all  scientific  propositions. 

KECAPITULATION       OP      AGREEMENTS,      DIS- 
AGREEMENTS    AND    OMISSIONS. 


Order  of  erents  as  re- 
ceived by  scientists. 

First  formative  process  or 
period. 
Origin  of  matter,  the 
stellar  system  and  planets 
in  their  orbits,  oceans, 
the  atmosphere  or  sky, 
imperfect  vegetable,  fol- 
lowed by  animal  life  in 
low  forms  entombed  in 
the  sedimentary  rocks. 


Second  period  of  progress. 
Increase  of  sediment- 
ary strata  and  of  marine 
life,  vegetable  and  ani- 
mal, invertrebrates  and 
vertrebrates  throughout 
the  Silurian  and  Devon- 
ian systems,  with  coal 
measure  growths,  fishes, 
amphibious  and  land  rep- 
tiles, brackish  waters  still 
warm,  sustain  mollusks 
and  a  tropical  growth  of 
great  luxuriance. 


Third  formative  period. 

Mesozoic  time,  tertiary 
and  post  tertiary.  • 

Fishes,  birds,  mollusks, 
land  and  water  plants, 
shrubs,  reptiles,  and 
mammals,  the  most  prom- 
inent man. 


Order  of  erents  inGen- 
esis,  Chapter  one. 

First  formative  or  creative 
period. 

Creation  brought  for- 
ward to  the  era  of  the 
planets,  seas,  darkness 
followed  by  transient 
light. 

First  and  second  day — 
a  firmament  spread  our, 
igneous  and  sedimentary 
rocks. 

No  mention  of  life. 
Second  period  of  progress. 

Dry  land  appears  prom- 
inently above  the  water. 
On  the  land,  plants, 
shrubs  and  trees,  a  per- 
manent firmament  '*  set 
in "  order,  with  sun, 
moon  and  stars  to  mark 
the  day,  the  night,  seasons 
and  years.  Creeping 
creatures"brought  forth" 
in  The  waters,  with  fowls 
or  birds  on  land.  First 
mention  of  life,  amphibi- 
ous creatures  possibly  in- 
cluded. No  marine  vege- 
tation brought  into  view 
anywhere — close  of  the 
fifth  day. 

Third  formhtive  or  crea- 
tive period. 

Air  breathing  creatures 
brought  forth,  land 
plants,  shrubs,  trees, 
man  created,  not  made. 


Thus  at  the  close  of  the  third  grand 
division  of  the  cosmos,  the  Scripture 
is  at  the  beginning  of  the  first  period 
directly  at  issue  with  materialistic 
evolution. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century  it  would  not  have  been  possi- 
ble, to  have  given  the  groups  of  the 
left  hand  column  of  the  above 
abstract,  from  the  scientific  libraries 
of  Europe  The  grouping  of  the 
right  hand  column  based  upon  the 
Mosaic  record,  published  fifteen  hun- 
dred years   before   Christ,  is   a   better 


one  than  the  learning  of  the  continent 
could  have  produced,  if  the  parts  thus 
unchallenged  and  uncontradicted  by 
scientists,  shall  be  stricken  out.  Eveii 
now  the  portions  under  criticism  and 
argument  by  acknowledged  scholars 
being  eliminated  there  remain  only 
here  and  there  limited  fields  of  dem- 
onstrated truth.  That  part  of  astron- 
omy which  rests  upon  mathematics 
presents  a  pleasing  exception.  The 
results  of  chemical  analysis  and  some 
other  physical  qualities  of  matter  are 
generally  accepted.  In  geology  es- 
pecially the  department  of  paleontolo- 
gy, the  confusion,  contradictions  and 
uncertainties  are  such,  that  what  pro- 
fesses to  be  science  is  but  little  better 
than  opinion.  Whoever  studies  the 
reports  of  state  geological  surveys,  or 
of  the  United  States  will  be  painfully 
impressed  by  the  large  space  devoted 
to  the  overthrow  of  the  conclusions  of 
their  predecessors.  A  notable  exam- 
ple of  these  efforts  may  be  seen  in  the 
late  government  and  State  reports  upon 
the  copper  bearing  range  of  the  upper 
peninsula  of  Michigan. 

It  is  a  fair  presumption  that  the 
work  of  the  latest  school  of  investiga- 
tors obliterating  that  of  a  long  line  of 
observers  of  reputation  during  fifty 
years  will  in  turn  be  swept  away.  All 
investigations  in  the  field  have  their 
value  even  where  they  are  made  to 
sustain  or  to  disprove  a  theory.  But 
critics  and  observers  will  continue  to 
live,  and  to  treat  their  predecessors 
without  veneration  if  not  without  re- 
spect. 

To  such  variable  standards  and 
changeable  tests,  mankind  are  asked 
to  submit  their  most  important  moral 
interests  in  deference  to  science. 
Materialistic  philosophy  is  still  more 
vague  having  no  standard.  It  pre- 
sents a  tjingled  maze  of  opinions  and 
conceits,  each  of  which  is  of  equal 
authority,  and  can  be  interpreted  by 
every  individual  so  as  to  conform  to 
his  caprices. 

( leveland,  <).,  March  1886. 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 

v . 

Mutability  of  Science  as  a  Moral  Regulator. 


BY  COL.    CHAS.  WHITTLESEY. 


These  chapters  have  been  written 
under  circumstances  not  favorable  to 
a  full  presentation  of  the  subject. 
For  many  years,  chronic  diseases  in- 
cident to  service  have  inflicted  almost 
incessant  suffering.  But  in  the  wake- 
ful silence  of  nights,  like  the  solitude 
of  tedious  days,  there  has  been  ex- 
cellent opportunity  for  undisturbed 
reflection. 

Conscious  of  the  uncertainty  of  life 
and  the  certainty  of  continued  disabili- 
ty, I  have  concluded  to  commit  them  to 
the  press,  fully  conscious  of  their  liter- 
ary defects.  In  a  subject  of  such  magni- 
tude as  the  antagonisms  between  the- 
ology and  science,  style  may  be  over- 
looked, provided  there  is  sufficient 
clearness  of  expression. 

Nothing  is  presented  in  a  spirit  of 
controversy,  but  with  an  unswerving 
faith  that  all  departments  of  the  uni- 
verse originated  with  one  mind,  di- 
rectly or  indirectly.  Those  who  be- 
lieve they  discover  discrepancies  and 
wish  to  place  science  above  all  other 
considerations  may  rest  assured  that 
there  is  no  intention  to  disparage  its 
achievements,  but  only  to  confine  it 
to  scientific  uses.  There  is  a  plain 
distinction  between  knowledge  whicn 
is  established  beyond  reasonable  doubt 
and  mere  hypotheses  or  opinions. 
Books  are  published  under  the  belief 
that  fluency  and  an  abundance  of 
language  with  an  attractive  style,  are 
an  evidence  of  thought  and  wisdom. 

An  eminent  French  archaeologist 
has  devoted  a  volume  to  the  theory 
that  the  sun's  rays  are  spirits  of  the 
dead,  returning  to  this  earth,  among 
whom  he  recognizes  that  of  his  de- 
ceased son. 


A  clergyman  of  some  reputation 
has  published  as  a  serious  fact  in 
science,  that  the  days  of  creation  are 
literal;  requiring  but  a  short  period 
of  time;  overthrowing  by  two  asser- 
tions the  work  of  the  geologists  of 
the  northern  hemisphere  during  fifty 
years,  and  denying  the  existence  of  a 
glacial  era.  Boulders  or  lost  rocks 
are  accounted  for  as  ejections  from 
volcanoes  that  are  no  longer  visible. 

A  strict  separation  of  questions  of 

l  natural  science  from  those  of  theolo- 

I  gy  will  promote   mutual  charity  and 

consideration   among   those  who   are 

not  specialists  in  both. 

When,  in  the  tardy  progress  of 
events,  any  fact  or  doctrine  shall  be 
firmly  established,  to  that  extent 
clashing  will  cease,  and  of  all  persons, 
those  who  have  confidence  in  the  God 
of  nature  can  there  leave  it.  Every 
position  as  it  shall  be  ultimately  fixed 
will  be  helpful  to  the  race.  Solid  in- 
telligence cannot  eventually  debase 
it,  to  whatever  unfortunate  uses  science 
may  be  temporarily  put.  Such  studies, 
so  far  as  they  have  developed  material 
truths,  will  remain  to  counteract 
vicious  ethics. 

My  intent  is  to  show  that  there  is  a 
want  of  perfection  in  science  and, 
therefore  of  stability,  wholly  inconsis- 
tent with  claims  to  infallibility. 
Whatevei  school  assumes  to  arbitrate 
upon  ethical  and  moral  questions, 
must  demonstrate  its  stability  in  or- 
der to  gain  confidence. 

A  very  slight  comparison  of  learned 
authorities  shows  the  reverse  of  unity. 
Permanence  must  be  an  attribute  of 
every  world-wide  system  subject  to 
inexorable    law.     In    the    world    of 


19 


20 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 


natural  science  and  natural  philoso- 
phy where  is  its  regulating  head 
or  appellant  court?  If  theology  is  not 
infallible  there  is  behind  it  the  belief 
in  a  ruling  and  regulating  power 
which  is  universal,  and  if  t heists  are 
in  the  right,  there  is  nothing  that 
cannot  in  some  way  be  brought  to  a 
satisfactory  test.  Treading  in  the 
paths  of  material  nature  they  may  for 
a  time  separate,  but  surely  to  con- 
verge and  meet  in  the  future. 

Evolution  in  natural  science  is  like 
Galileo's  revolving  earth — a  reality. 
Between  this  and  the  moral  or  ethical 
deductions  of  materialists  is  a  gulf 
that  is  impassable.  That  evolution  as 
an  atheistical  doctrine  in  morals  is 
false;  cannot  alter  nature. 

None  of  the  fraternity  of  schools 
penetrates  farther  into  the  material 
world  than  astronomers,  whose  meth- 
ods are  based  on  mathematics  and 
natural  philosophy.  In  animated  nat- 
ure there  is  not  as  great  exactness, 
and  therefore  more  scope  for  opinion 
and  instability. 

Persons  who  deny  a  first  great 
cause  detract  from  the  simplicity  of 
nature,  and  leave  its  moral  grandeur 
out  of  view.  Its  material  grandeur  is 
overshadowing  to  all  persons  alike. 
Its  moral  greatness,  when  circum- 
scribed by  animism,  mortal  life  and 
annihilation,  becomes  frail  and  unim- 
portant. 

Wonderful  views  of  the  stellar  sys- 
tem have  been  disclosed. by  an  increase 
in  the  diameter  of  object  glasses  in  tele- 
scopes from  9  to  11,  13,  19  and  23 
inches. 

Clark  and  Sons  of  Massachusetts 
have  in  this  way  given  to  astronomy 
new  worlds,  and  to  those  before  known 
new  and  surprising  beauties.  Sirius, 
which  by  common  consent  had  been 
regarded  as  the  nearest  star  to  our  so- 
lar system,  is  found  by  Bessel  to  be 
more  distant  than  several  lesser  stars, 
thus  making  changes  even  in  astrono- 
my. Double  stars  have  long  been 
known.     Prof.  C.    S.    Bumham,    of 


Chicago,  in  1862  discovered  a  com- 
panion of  Sirius,  but  of  much  less 
magnitude,  revolving  around  their 
common  centre  of  gravity  in  about 
fifty  years.  They  are  thirty-seven 
times  the  distance  from  each  other 
that  the  sun  is  from  our  earth.  Their 
mass  is  about  twenty  times  that  of  the 
sun.  There  are  thousands  of  binary, 
triple,  quadruple  and  greater  conger- 
ies of  stars,  revclving  about  their  cen- 
tres of  gravitation,  having  a  proper 
motion  in  space  as  groups.  There  are 
also  nebulae  not  yet  resolved. 

The  gorgeous  cluster  of  the  Pleia- 
des, which  has  been  admired  by  ori- 
ental shepherds  from  remote  ages, 
presents  to  the  eye  a  group  of  seven 
stars.  Small  telescopes  increase  the 
number  to  forty-four,  and  the  great 
refractors  to  more  than  six  hundred, 
all  with  direct  as  well  as  revolving 
motion.  Prof.  Kirkwood  infers  that 
they  form  a  combined  system,  and 
that  it  is  infinitely  impossible  that  it 
has  resulted  from  chance.  He  says 
that  the  new  questions  which  these 
wonderful  groups  present  are  so  com- 
plex as  to  baffle  the  greatest  living  as- 
tronomers. Humboldt  when  con- 
templating these  "  island  worlds" 
was  roused  to  a  state  of  scientific 
wonder  how  they  could  rotate,  and 
yet  be  in  a  state  of  stability.  A  fair 
inference  is  that  they  are  not.  Such 
changes  are  not  more  striking 
than  those  of  minuter  objects,  but  ap- 
pear more  astonishing,  because  they 
occur  on  a  scale  inconceivably  grand. 
Under  given  mutations  of  a  physical 
character,  the  system  is  probably  in- 
destructible, or  at  least  its  compo- 
nents. 

To  carry  out  the  moral  government 
of  God,  he  must  be  eternal,  and  also 
the  subjects  of  that  government.  An- 
nihilation of  any  part  of  it  at  any 
time  would  limit  its  perfection,  as  ap- 
plied to  intellectual  beings.  Its  char- 
acteristics are  like  the  mctamorphism 
of  the  rocks,  slow  of  operation,  but 
giver  sufficient  periods,  produce  cer- 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 


21 


tain  results,  that  proclaim  a  benevo- 
lent intent.  With  a  very  large  pro- 
portion of  mankind,  from  the  lowest 
to  the  highest,  their  designs  and  their 
acts  are  the  reverse  of  benevolent. 
Of*  the  best  plans  devised  by  them  to 
promote  the  happiness  of  others,  they 
feel  no  certainty  of  their  future  suc- 
cess, on  account  of  the  shortness  of 
life,  and  their  impotence  over  those 
who  survive  them.  Here  lies  the  rea- 
son of  the  mutability  of  everything 
human.  No  school  of  scientists  has 
been  more  positive  than  that  which 
affirms  self  or  spontaneous  genera- 
tion. 

It  is  nearly  one  hundred  years,  in 
the  days  of  its  leading  advocate,  Prof. 
Oken,  since  those  doctrinaries  placed 
the  origin  of  life  in  something  called 
useafoam."  Thus  the  greatest  func- 
tion of  deified  power,  the  origin  of 
life,  was  ascribed  to  spontaneous  ac- 
tion wholly  disconnected  with  deity, 
which  in  all  forms  they  denied.  Ex- 
periments were  not  furnished  to  dem- 
onstrate the  facts  of  such  an  origin; 
only  incessant  assertions. 

As  those  scientists  succeeded  in  con- 
vincing some  of  the  German  people  of 
the  truth  of  the  doctrine,  immediately 
there  arose  among  men  of  learning 
another  equally  infallible  explanation 
of  life  development,  through  some 
vital  energy  in  ^stardust,"  whatever 
that  is.  This  was  followed  by  ascrib- 
ing similar  powers  to  ascidians,  then 
to  monads  and  to  momiria,  which 
when  first  observed  are  undistinguish- 
able  from  vegetable  organisms. 

Next  the  acarus  horridens  took  the 
lead,  and  now  under  the  fiat  of  the 
philosopher  of  Jena,  gelatwies  or  gela- 
tinous points.  Like  its  predecessors 
this  is  an  assumption,  not  sustained 
by  proof. 

On  such  variable  foundations,  can 
mankind  be  expected  to  commit  their 
moral  destiny?  As  scholars,  though 
by  no  means  infallible,  their  study  of 
nature  is  becoming  more  and  more 
valuable.     As  moralists  they  cannot 


certainly  be  more  reliable  than  as 
scientists  ;  whose  claims  are  contra- 
dicted by  other  scientists  equally  pro- 
found. There  is  not  more  inconstancy 
in  natural  science  than  in  other  like 
pursuits,  which  are  without  an  um- 
pire, in  fact  less.  Its  mission  is  the 
interpretation  of  nature,  whicli  is 
more  stable  than  art ;  and  as  fast  as 
the  true  interpretation  is  reached 
science  becomes  fixed. 

While  mind  and  talent  of  the  high- 
est order  are  necessary  to  penetrate 
and  expose  the  secrets  of  nature,  ma- 
terialists deny  the  necessity  of  in- 
tellect of  any  order  to  originate  a 
world.  If  their  positions  are  good, 
they  become  intellectually  and  moral- 
ly supreme.  This  is  the  teaching  of 
their  philosophical  works,  which  rec- 
ommend to  their  fellow-men  that  the)7 
are  morally  independent. 

There  are  naturalists  not  theists  so 
far  committed  to  the  doctrine  of  ori- 
gin by.  the  divergence  of  species,  as  to 
attribute  in  them  something  like  a 
premonition  of  what  is  to  follow.  To 
pronounced  materialists  any  such 
looking  forward  must  be  self  or  spon- 
taneous mental  action.  On  a  theisti- 
cal  basis  such  a  premonition  might  be 
accounted  for  as  a  feature  imposed 
upon  matter  whether  animate  or  in- 
animate, laying  a  foundation  for  an- 
other step  m  its  development.  On 
the  contrary  hypothesis  it  must  be 
self-action  in  each  case.  It  cannot 
consistently  be  claimed  as  the  result 
of  law  while  they  deny  the  existence 
of  a  law  maker.  Without  law  the 
subject  of  each  premonition  has  indi- 
vidual action  which  must  be  independ- 
ent. What  can  be  more  unphilo- 
sophical  than  myriads  of  such  self-orig- 
inating existences  acting  in  concert? 
If  it  is  not  wholly  imaginary  such  ac- 
tion must  be  mental;  and  if  one  creat- 
ure has  it  so  must  all. 

Similar  ambiguous  phrases  are  cur- 
rent in  Mr.  Darwin's  writings,  which 
allow  of  a  construction  closely  allied 
to  that  of  premonition.     Preordina- 


22 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  Iff  SCIENCE. 


tion  by  mind  presents  nothing  am- 
biguous, but  terms,  such  as  "  natural 
selection,"  "effects  of  environment," 
and  "origin  of  species,"  not  subject  to  a 
supreme  regulator,  have  been  honestly 
construed  by  thousands  to  include  self- 
action  and  to  cover  the  origin  of  life. 

When  that  conclusion  is  reached, 
thought  and  foreknowledge  naturally 
follow.  Unless  between  mind  and 
matter,  there  is  something  intermedi- 
ate connecting  both,  there  remains  a 
break  between  spiritual  and  material 
entities.  While  they  are  separate  the 
material  can  act  only  subject  to  an  in- 
tellectual guide.  Those  who  believe 
in  self  generation  will  not  deny  that 
there  is  order  and  system  at  and  after 
the  origin.  How  can  they  exist  with- 
out agreement  and  design  ?  The  Dar- 
winian doctrine  of  change  within  liv- 
ing species  is  very  much  strengthened 
by  the  broader  and  deeper  one  of 
primordial  evolution. 

Looking  over  all  phases  of  ex- 
istence, whether  animal  or  vegetable, 
it  cannot  be  successfully  denied 
that  there  is  proclivity  to  change. 
This  feature  is  not  confined  to  living 
creatures,  but  embraces  the  mineral 
kinguom  from  its  remotest  periods, 
and  such  must  have  been  the  design 
of  a  will,  equal  to  its  successful 
management.  Those  who  discredit 
and  deny  the  doctrine  of  evolution 
will  profit  by  a  study  of  these  changes, 
going  back  as  far  as  our  knowledge 
extends.  They  will  be  found  to  ex- 
hibit an  harmonious  progress,  clearly 
expressing  a  controlling  power,  whose 
modes  of  operation  are  beyond  the 
control  and  largely  beyond  the  under- 
standing of  humanity.  This  vast 
scheme  is  not  confined  to  natural 
science  or  to  the  material  world. 

On  the  question  of  instability  I 
have  already  referred  to  a  disposition 
among  geologists  to  discredit  the 
conclusions  of  their  predecessors.  This 
is  manifest  not  only  in  the  United 
States,  but  in  Europe,  from  the  earli- 
est reports  and  records. 


Examine  the  prolonged  discussion 
upon  our  Azoic  and  Metamorphic 
systems,  including  the  dreadful  Ta- 
conic  series.  In  archaeology  and  its 
cognate  studies,  the  range  of  discrep- 
ancies is  still  wider,  on  account  of  less 
exactness  of  method,  and  therefore 
more  exuberance  of  imagination. 
There  is  no  lack  of  earnest  research, 
but  an  honest  difference  of  opinion. 
There  is  not  unanimity  among  arch- 
aeologists in  regard  to  the  presence  of 
the  elephant  and  mastodon  in  the 
United  States  since  the  occupation  of 
the  red  men. 

Several  members  of  the  Academy  of 
Science  at  Davenport,  la.,  have  exam- 
ined stone  relics  from  ancient  mounds 
in  that  vicinity,  on  which  are  rudely 
engraved  images  that  have  been  con- 
sidered as  representing  the  elephant. 
This  academy  has  a  stone  pipe  in  the 
general  form  of  an  elephant,  and  in 
Missouri  such  an  effigy  has  been 
found.  The  Bureau  of  Ethnology  as 
a  part  of  the  Smithsonian  Institute 
at  Washington,  denies  that  the  ele- 
phant and  the  red  man  were  extem- 
poraneous, and  decline  to  admit  the 
genuineness  of  the  engraved  tablets, 
or  the  fact  that  the  elephant  was  in- 
tended to  be  represented. 

Very  strenuous  efforts  are  being 
made  to  effect  uniformity  of  action 
upon  great  practical  subjects,  by 
means  of  congresses  and  conventions. 
The  peace  of  Europe  is  measurably 
assured  by  meetings  of  the  powers 
and  general  conference  upon  political 
questions.  Fortunate  and  valuable  as 
these  discussions  may  be,  they  have 
no  abiding  authority,  or  final  certain- 
ty of  success. 

In  medical  practice,  which  controls 
the  greatest  of  our  needs,  there  are 
among  practitioners  the  widest  differ- 
ences, amounting  to  contradictions. 
By  means  of  schools  and  med- 
ical colleges  these  differences  are  be- 
ing reduced,  but  when  will  the  day 
come  when  doctors  shall  agree!  In 
scientific  matters  there  are  in  Great 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE, 


23 


Britain  and  the  United  States  associa- 
tions for  the  advancement  of  knowl- 
edge, where  the  most  learned  pro- 
fessors and  students  meet  annually  to 
compare  their  conclusions.  Their 
published  papers  represent  the  highest 
development  of  science  in  all  its  de- 
partments. By  these  records  it  is 
evident  that  their  minds  are  far  from 
accord  upon  any  of  the  great  ques- 
tions of  science. 

in  mathematics  and  astronomy  no 
investigation  has  embraced  more  tal- 
ent and  public  patronage  than  the  ef- 
fort to  find  a  standard  measure  inde- 
pendent of  the  meter.  The  French 
government  employed  Prof.  Arago  in 
1822  to  survey  a  meridian  of  longitude 
through  Paris  and  determine  the 
length  of  a  degree  of  arc.  A  given 
portion  of  the  meridian  he  surveyed 
became  their  standard  meter.  English 
mathematicians  deny  the  accuracy  of 
the  French  work  by  some  1800  meters. 

For  this  purpose,  for  an  invariable 
reference  in  case  the  English  standard 
yard  should  be  lost  or  injured,  the 
government  makes  use  of  the  semi- 
polar  axis  of  the  earth.  The  accuracy 
of  the  British  determination  is  denied 
by  French  mathematicians  as  subject 
to  a  greater  error  than  has  been 
ascribed  to  the  arc  of  Arago.  From 
the  progress  of  schools  towards  unity 
in  the  past  two  centuries  it  may  be  in- 
ferred that  a  geological  era  may  elapse 
before  it  is  reached. 

Many  other  institutions  in  all  civil- 
ized countries  have  long  been  engaged 
either  as  individual  schools  or  in  con- 
nection with  universities  and  the 
patronage  of  governments  in  dis- 
cussing great  questions  in  nature, 
including  astronomy,  chemistry,  ar- 
chaeology,    medicine,     mathematics. 


language  and  social  affairs.  Where, 
on  any  of  these  subjects,  is  to  be  found 
an  exponent  that  is  received  with  such 
respect  as  to  silence  criticism? 

Questions  of  world-wide  religious 
interest  are  discussed  by  representa- 
tives of  creeds  and  churches  with  in- 
creasing approach  to  unanimity.  The 
points  that  are  settled  as  finalities  are 
few,  but  solutions  appear  more  and 
more  probable.  Upon  interpretation, 
discipline  and  doctrine,  there  are  broad 
variances  of  opinion.  Max  Muller 
maintains  that  evolution  embraces  not 
only  intellectual  matters,  but  the 
moral  and  religious  senses. 

To  this  it  may  be  objected  that 
evolution  must  operate  imperatively, 
not  liable  to  artificial  correction ;  but 
in  Darwin's  plan  the  surroundings 
play  a  very  important  part.  A  belief 
in  this  adds  to  the  grandeur  of  moral 
government,  by  engrafting  upon  it, 
as  in  the  material  world,  new  hopes 
and  possibilities  for  those  who  accept 
the  idea  of  immortality. 

Every  discovery  of  this  kind,  wheth- 
er in  spiritual  or  material  fields,  adds 
solidity  to  what  may  have  been  estab- 
lished of  a  kindred  nature  before,  be- 
cause it  thus  becomes  more  and  more 
universal.  As  it  covers  more  depart- 
ments, its  necessity  for  all  of  them 
increases,  and  also  the  probabilities 
that  it  permeates  every  department  of 
the  universe — mental,  moral  and  ma- 
terial. To  those  who  in  various  de- 
grees indulge  in  the  greatest  rever- 
ence for  secular  learning,  I  submit 
whether,  if  the  moral  sense  comes 
within  its  scope  and  purpose,  there  is 
as  yet  stability  enough  to  formulate  a 
code  that  shall  be  true  and  shall  prom- 
ise to  be  perpetual. 


THEISM  ATO  ATHEISM  W  SCIENCE. 


VI. 


The  Law  of  Undulations. 


13Y    COL.    CHAS.  WHITTLESEY. 


When  we  have  considered  a  large 
number  of  the  qualities  of  inanimate 
matter,  and  have  shown  that  they 
form  parts  of  systems  pervading  this 
planet  and  doubtless  other  planets  or 
suns,  it  may  be  inferred  that  other 
qualities  or  functions,  not  as  well  un- 
derstood, belong  also  to  systems  with 
laws.  Those  best  known,  are  gravi- 
tation, crystallization,  cohesion,  elec- 
tricity and  orbital  motions,  whose 
mutual  relations  are  universally  ad- 
mitted. 

In  animate  nature,  are  qualities 
equally  universal,  and  as  mutually  de- 
pendent, which  form  mental  and 
physiological  systems.  All  of  them 
move  forward,  in  accordance  to  their 
special  laws.  If  they  did  not,  they 
could  not  act  in  concert,  and  accom- 
plish specific  purposes.  This  would 
seem  to  be  manifest.  In  the  aggre- 
gate the  universe  may  be  compared 
to  the  regiments,  brigades  and  divi- 
sions of  an  army,  with  their  batteries 
of  artillery,  and  squadrons  of  cavalry, 
all  directed  by  one  will;  without 
which,  instead  of  order  and  efficiency, 
there  would  be  insufficiency  and  chaos. 

The  creative  power  of  theistical 
philosophy  is  none  the  less  a  control- 
ling agent  because  its  operations  are 
slow ;  commencing  far  back  in  the 
life  of  the  universe,  and  act  by  endow- 
ments, impressed  upon  both  matter 
and  mind. 

Special  impulses  are  not  impossible, 
but  belong  to  the  miraculous,  and  lose 
the  form  of  law,  as  well  as  the  beauty 
of  systems.  It  will  tend  to  give  clear- 
ness to  our  perceptions  of  spiritual 
action,  if  we  consider  the  principles, 
qualities  and  forces  impressed   upon 


matter  in  primordial  times,  and  how. 
though  fixed  in  number,  they  have 
operated  continuously;  evolving  new 
principles,  qualities  and  forces. 

Scientific  details  are  not  of  so  much 
consequence,  to  our  thesis,  as  the  per- 
sistent relationship  of  each  depart- 
ment to  others,  which  takes  the  form 
of  a  fact.  One  of  these  departments 
or  systems,  is  the  manner  in  which 
gases,  fluids  and  solids  move  in  curves 
or  oscillations,  and  not  in  right  lines. 
The  design  or  purpose  of  this  Jaw  of 
motion,  is  in  some  respects  not  as 
manifest,  as  it  is  in  the  case  of  elec- 
tricity, crystallization  and  many  other 
attributes,  but  the  fact  is  as  well  estab- 
lished. Motion  is  attributed  to  two 
mechanical  agencies;  direct  impulse 
and  gravity,  which  results  in  the  trac- 
ing of  curves. 

A  solid  shot  discharged  from  a  gun 
takes  the  track  of  a  parabola.  A 
stone  thrown  by  hand  assumes  the 
same  curve.  Planets,  asteroids  and 
comets  are  regarded  by  scientists  as 
having  had  an  impulse  in  a  right  line, 
but  being  immediately  acted  upon  by 
gravitation  from  the  sun,  gave  to  their 
orbits  the  form  of  ellipses,  of  which 
that  orb  occupies  one  of  the  foci. 

Ascending  flames  from  combustion 
take  a  wavy  form  under  the  effects  of 
buoyancy.  The  captive  balloon  or  kite 
struggling  to  rise.  sways  to  and  fro  in, 
much  the.  same  manner.  A  rope 
stretched  across  a  flowing  stream  has 
the  same  action.  Rockets  and  other 
pyrotechny  which  on  public  celebra- 
tions endanger  cities,  and  entrance 
the  hearts  of  children,  come  under  the 
same  law;  likewise  their  fragments 
when  exploded. 


94 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 


25 


Winds  move  in  waves,  the  same  as 
the  waters,  which  are  wrought  into 
waves.  Flags  and  other  sheets  acted 
upon  by  breezes,  are  shaped  into  un- 
dulatory  folds,  and  never  into  flat  sur- 
faces. Whether  in  flumes  or  other 
channels,  flowing  water  assumes  a 
wavy  movement,  which  cannot  be 
prevented.  If  it  escapes  from  pipes, 
the  discharge  is  in  spirts  and  curves. 

In  fountains  and  jets  d  eau  there 
are  incessant  changes,  the  spray  ris- 
ing and  falling  continually.  It  is  the 
same  with  gases  flowing  from  pipes — 
always  oscillating.  A  rope  or  a  car- 
pet shaken  along  the  ground  takes  on 
the  form  of  waves,  loops  and  billows 

Semi-fluid  or  viscous  matter,  such 
as  molasses,  tar,  molten  slag  and  lava 
have  a  sluggish,  rolling  flow.  Earth- 
quakes progress  in  waves  on  land  and 
beneath  the  sea.  This  is  a  system 
which  philosophers  would  never  have 
devised. 

Prof.  Foreb,  on  the  Swiss  geological 
survey,  has  a  tidal  register  near  Lau- 
sanne, on  Lake  Geneva.  This  instru- 
ment is  affected  by  the  commotion  of 
steamers,  on  the  opposite  shore  thirty 
miles  distant.  Sheets  of  water  falling 
over  dams  or  regular  waterfalls  like 
Niagara,  sway  back  and  forth  inces- 
santly, sometimes  giving  out  musical 
souncls  like  the  Eolian  harp  or  tele- 
graph wires  in  the  wind. 

Musical  string  instruments  produce 
harmonious  notes  by  their  vibrations. 
Wind  instruments  of  various  forms, 
made  from  alloys  of  metal,  produce 
harmony  by  vibration. 

The  human  throat  was  the  model 
trumpet,  most  perfect  of  all  by  reason 
of  its  flexibility  and  obedience  to  the 
will  and  the  lung  power.  Animals 
have  the  organs  of  modulation  for 
voices  in  as  full  perfection. 

All  sounds  are  the  fruit  of  undula- 
tions breaking  upon  the  drum  of  the 
ear,  transmitted  to  the  brain  by 
special  nerves.  A  stone  dropped  into 
quiet  water  sends  a  series  of  concen- 
tric   waves    outward    like  waves   of 


sound  which  extend  beyond  the  point 
where  they  cease  to  be  visible.  No 
waters  of  seas  or  lakes  are  so  quiet 
but  there  are  ripples  upon  the  beach, 
the  result  of  low,  broad  waves  coming 
in  from  a  distance;  probably  the  re- 
sult of  atmospheric  waves  due  to  in- 
equalities of  pressure.  Neither  the 
air  or  the  water  is  ever  at  perfect 
rest.  Some  forms  of  undulatory  mo- 
tion are  so  common  that  they  do  not 
attract  attention. 

Stones  or  metal  balls  let  fall  in 
quiet  water  sink  in  wavy  lines  pro- 
pelled by  gravity  only.  Lightning 
approaches  to  straight  or  jagged  lines, 
because  the  initial  velocity  is  irresisti- 
ble and  the  course  generally  down- 
ward towards  the  earth  through  the 
atmosphere  where  the  resistance  is 
great  for  so  subtle  a  body. 

Pendulums  oscillate  with  so  much 
regularity  that  time  is  measured  by 
them.  This  motion  is  so  exact  that 
it  has  been  applied  to  the  determina- 
tion of  the  standard  yard  in  England. 

On  all  shores  there  are  undulations 
of  the  waters  besides  the  tides,  that 
follow  each  other  hour  after  hour 
with  a  regularity  that  comes  very 
near  to  perpetual  motion.  There  are 
also  numerous  records  of  great  waves 
propelled  by  storms  or  earthquakes, 
of  great  height  and  terrible  power,  of 
which  that  of  Krakatoa  has  been  best 
described. 

Krakatoa. 

As  recently  as  August  1884  a  vol- 
cano burst  forth  in  the  sea  near  Sum- 
atra. It  rose  in  a  few  hours  in  the 
form  of  a  cone,  formed  by  ashes  and 
stones  thrown  upward  to  a  great 
height.  The  shock  was  so  irresistible, 
that  a  large  tract  of  rich  and  culti- 
vated country  at  the  ocean  level,  was 
inundated  by  the  wave  to  an  elevation 
of  sixty  feet,  killing  many  thousands 
of  people.  The  atmosphere  was  made 
dark  by  clouds  of  smoke  and  dust, 
which  spread  several  hundred  miles 
in  fiP  directions.     It  was  claimed  but 


26 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 


not  well  established,  that  this  volcanic 
dust  appeared  in  our  atmosphere,  caus- 
ing an  unusually  ruddy  glow  at  sun- 
rise and  sunset. 

It  was  however  well  settled,  by  tide 
registers,  on  the  Indian  Ocean  and  on 
the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  coasts;  that 
a  wave  moved  outward  from  the  vol- 
cano, across  all  those  seas,  which  was 
lost,  only  when  it  was  broken  on  some 
coast.  It  did  not  differ  from  earth- 
quake waves,  except  in  its  extent. 
From  the  Indian  Archipelago  it  moved 
northerly,  easterly  and  southerly, 
along  the  coast  of  Asia  across  to  the 
Pacific  coast  and  to  the  Pacific  Islands. 
All  the  tide  registers  made  record  of 
it. 

On  the  Atlantic  coasts  of  South 
and  North  America  it  was  observed, 
and  coming  around  Cape  Horn  ap- 
peared on  the  Pacific  coast  separate 
from  the  direct  wave  from  Sumatra. 

In  recent  years  natural  philosophers 
have  measuarably  abandoned  the  the- 
ory that  the  rays  of  the  sun  are  pro- 
jected in  right  lines.  In  place  of  this 
there  is  one,  requiring  rapid  vibra- 
tions at  the  sun  and  stars,  which 
transmit  light  through  space,  by  un- 
dulations, and  requires  the  presence 
everywhere  of  an  ether,  too  subtle  to 
be  tangible;  but  which  is  admitted 
as  indispensable  to  the  new  theory. 
A  new  interest  is  thus  given  to  undu- 
lations in  general.  These  vibrations 
strike  the  retina,  and  through  the 
nerves  of  the  eye  reach  the  brain  pro- 
ducing the  sensation  of  light. 

The  proofs  of  its  existence  or  of  its 
nature  are  not  very  satisfactory. 

Something  of  this  indescribable,  or 
at  least,  undescribed  ethereal  char- 
acter is  also  required  to  sustain  the 
theory  that  heat  is  only  a  violent  agi- 
tation of  particles.  If  such  an  ether 
exists,  it  cannot  be  for  light  only. 
There  are  other  mysterious  phenom- 
ena to  which  an  equally  mysterious 
process  is  necessary.  Such  as  the 
transmission  of  sound  through  solid 
bodies,    which    requires     a    medium 


ethereal  enough  to  penetrate  the 
spaces  between  the  particles.  It 
might  also  be  a  promoter  of  the  pas- 
sage of  electricity,  through  its  various 
conductors,  solid  or  fluid. 

It  is  well  known  that  sound  is  con- 
veyed through  wires  and  cords  by 
diaphragms,  distinct  enough  to  give 
signals  without  electricity,  but  won- 
derfully improved  by  the  use  of  it. 
Everything  points  to  a  general  sys- 
tem of  undulatory  movements  so  uni- 
versal that  it  has  taken  rank  as  one 
of  the  general  qualities  of  matter, 
however  indefinite  the  details  may  be. 
The  propelling  power  of  the  Kraka- 
toa  waves,  which  belted  the  earth  and 
were  lost  only  when  they  broke  on 
every  shore,  may  not  be  satisfactorily 
explained  by  a  first  impulse  forward, 
acted  upon  by  gravity.  It  requires  an 
almost  infinite  force  to  stretch  a  line 
to  a  strictly  horizontal  position,  and 
there  the  only  opposing  force  is  the 
gravitation  of  the  earth  at  right  an- 
gles to  it. 

Unconfined  fluids  and  gases  are  so 
exceedingly  sensitive  to  inequalities  of 
atmospheric  pressure  that  they  are 
never  at  rest. 

A  broad  field  of  conjecture  is  opened 
by  admitting  such  an  ether,  where 
new  possibilities  and  profound  queries 
force  themselves  upon  us. 

Can  it  hold  the  position  of  a  medium 
of  thought  along  the  brain  and  be  at 
the  same  time  material? 

Unfathomable  as  such  speculations 
may  appear,  they  are  portentous  to 
materialists,  not  to  theists.  The  posi- 
tion of  the  former  is  nothing  without 
annihilation.  Spontaneous  genera- 
tion implies  spontaneous  destructi- 
bility. 

Shakespeare  had  not  been  educated 
up  to  that  form  of  morality  when  he 
advised  his  fellow  men  to  ponder  and 
bear  the  ills  they  have,  rather  than 
plunge  into  an  unknown  sea  of  troubles 
which  they  knew  not  of.  Persons  of 
a  suicidal  proclivity  may  well  pause 
long  enough  to  consider  whether  any 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 


27 


Eower  but  the  creative  one  can  anni- 
ilate  anything. 

Having  brought  into  view  some 
phenomena  of  solid  bodies,  especially 
such  as  seem  to  partake  of  an  ethereal 
or  intangible  character,  we  may  con- 
sider those  by  which  the  clearly  ma- 
terial, is  connected  with  what  is  less 
tangible.  The  doctrine  of  universal 
ether  as  a  medium  of  light  that  has 
become  prominent  is  almost  bewilder- 
ing. It  indicates  a  depth  of  contriv- 
ance which  goes  beyond  the  doctrine 
of  right  line  rays,  and  is  a  surprise  in 
nature. 

If  this  medium  of  undulations  stim- 
ulates or  otherwise  affects  the  nerves, 
it  should  have  some  connection  with 
the  mind. 

In  a  chapter  on  the  brain  and  ner- 
vous system  this  possibility  will  be 
considered.  If  the  theory  holds  good, 
it  will  be  another  cord  reaching  into 
other  systems,  binding  and  intertwin- 
ing them  still  closer.  Such  a  bold 
hypothesis  requires,  if  not  a  demon- 
stration, at  least  something  more  than 
plausible  argument. 

If  established  there  must  stand 
within  sustaining  distance  an  invisi- 
ble, all  powerful,  infinite  mind  who, 
in  the  language  of  Garfield,  comes 
so  hear  to  the  children  of  men  that 
his  whispers  are  audible  to  them.  It 
is  only  by  such  magic  power  that 
dead  matter  from  its  original  condi- 
tion has  been  developed  into  life  and 
perfection  in  a  manner  that  astonishes 
the  greatest  of  human  intellects.  On- 
ly upon  this  view  can  the  men.tal  be 
brought  into  such  close  unison  with 
the  material,  such  as  a  creator  would 
naturally  bestow  upon  his  creatures. 
It  would  save  investigators  much  per- 
plexity, if  instead  of  laboring  to  ex- 
clude a  deity  they  would  recognize  him 
as  inspiring  the  forces  of  nature. 

This  is  not  science  but  knowledge 
of  a  higher  grade  and  good  reasoning. 
The  theory  of  a  pervading  ether  re- 
quires more  imagination  or  faith  than 
that  of  an  all-pervading  spirit. 


Apparently  the  wave-like  motion 
is  a  mode  of  transmission  that  re- 
quires the  least  expenditure  of  force. 
An  analogous  evidence  of  wide  spread 
mechanical  contrivance  is  the  struct- 
ure of  bones,  where  by  means  of  hol- 
lows and  cavities  the  greatest  strength 
is  obtained  with  a  given  material. 
Whatever  the  newly  found  medium 
for  light  may  be  its  susceptibility  to 
impact,  must  be  beyond  comprehen- 
sion. Some  scientist  has  estimated 
the  vibrations  of  light  to  be  1$0,000 
in  a  second.  The  late  Prof.  E.  Desor 
of  Neufchatel  concluded,  that  the 
transmission  of  thought  requires  time 
not  exactly  measurable.  Electricians 
have  been  able  to  measure  the  veloci- 
ty of  the  electrical  wave.  Oscillations 
of  material  substances  imply  momen- 
tum which  implies  a  material  agent 
or  impulse.  No  form  of  undulation  is 
mental;  wherever  vibrations  occur,  in 
whatever  portion  of  the  universe  there 
must  be  matter,  however  attenuated 
or  imponderable.  Motion  is  one  of 
the  life  sustaining  provisions  of  nature. 
Its  office  in  the  atmosphere  is  to  puri- 
fy it,  extending  to  caves  and  mines. 
In  the  waters,  whether  of  lakes,  rivers 
or  seas,  there  are  self  regulating  move- 
men  ts  that  prevent  stagnation. 

The  mechanism  of  the  universe 
acts  in  concord,  within  fixed  limits 
of  change;  which  are  not  productive 
of  discord. 

Meteors  which  reach  the  earth  from 
other  bodies  might,  if  they  were  large 
and  numerous,  increase  its  bulk  and 
change  its  relations  to  the  asteroids 
and  planets.  The  remarkable  shower 
of  November  1833  was  entirely  gase- 
ous, and  dissipated  in  the  atmosphere. 
As  yet  astronomers  have  observed  no 
perceptible  increase.  The  increase  of 
ice  on  land  during  the  glacial  era, 
produced  a  slight  change  in  the  centre 
of  gravity,  and  the  level  of  the 
sea. 

Prof.  Geike  of  the  geological  survey 
of  Great  Britain  has  given  an  ex- 
planation, which  shows  it  to  be  self- 


28 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 


regulating  and  returning  to  its  nor- 
mal condition. 

It  is  due  to  astronomical  causes, 
and  to  combinations  between  the  ec- 
centricity of  the  earth's  orbit  and  the 
revolution  of  the  line  of  the  apsides. 
It  requires  about  11,000  years  to  come 
on,  and  the  same  to  retire,  or  a  period 
of  about  22.000  years. 

This  oscillation  embraces  a  moder- 
ate change  on  an  extensive  scale,  and 
is  going  on  now.  The  ice  neve  and 
snow  of  Greenland,  British  North 
America  and  Alaska,  slowly  increases 
southward  until  the  astronomical  con- 
ditions change,  the  temperature  is 
raised,  the  mass  thaws  from  its  south- 
ern border,  and  is  resolved  into  water 
and  the  normal  condition  returns. 
One  result  was  the  lowering  of  the 
ocean  level,  by  the  solidifying  of  its 


waters  retained  upon  the  continents. 
— Professor  Hilgard.  of  Washington, 
calculates  the  change  in  the  center  of 
gravity  of  the  earth  to  have  been  on- 
ly six  hundred  (000)  feet,  This  is 
an  illustration  of  the  compensations 
of  nature  by  its  self-regulating  pro- 
cesses. 

There  is  proof  of  the  existence  of 
cave-dwelling  men  at  that  period,  who 
probably  retreated  before  the  increas- 
ing cold.  A  number  of  pre-glacial 
animals  have  left  their  bones  in  the 
clay,  sand  and  gravel  derived  from 
crushed  rocks  and  boulders.  Many 
genera  survived  the  Arctic  cold.  To 
the  controversy  in  regard  to  the  ele- 
phant and  the  mastodon,  as  a  cotem- 
porary  with  post  glacial  man,  refer- 
ence has  already  been  made  in  discuss- 
ing the  instability  of  science. 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 

VII. 

The  Brain  and  Nerve  Mysteries. 


BY   COL.    CHAS.    WHITTLESEY. 


A  nerve  may  be  studied  physically, 
like  other  parts  of  the  animal  system, 
but  possesses  an  interest  that  attaches 
to  no  other  organ  on  account  of  its 
relation  to  mind.  Our  nerves  are 
formed  in  knots,  ganglia  and  centres 
of  radiation,  of  which  the  most  re- 
markable is  the  brain.  In  respect  to 
what  is  wonderful  in  mind  and  at  the 
same  time  a  practical  power,  it  com- 
pares with  the  great  complex  stellar 
system.  It  is  the  seat  of  all  mental 
action,  including  reason,  passion,  mem- 
ory, the  emotions,  knowledge,  and  that 
group  of  spiritual  activities  that  are 
not  regarded  as  material. 

Its  material  side  is  being  examined 
under  the  microscope  and  in  the  dis- 
secting room,  bringing  out  new  won- 
ders and  mysteries.  Its  relations  to 
mind  cannot  be  determined  there. 
When  its  common  centre  within  the 
brain  case  is  considered,  it  is  found  to 
dominate. over  and  direct  every  move- 
ment of  the  intellect,  and  this  subtle 
essence  confessedly  directs  whatever 
transpires  among  men. 

Nothing  can  be  more  important 
physiologically  than  the  brain  power. 
It  presents,  physically  considered,  no 
extreme  difficulties  over  other  anato- 
mies, such  as  the  muscles,  bones,  the 
organs  of  the  senses  and  those  of 
propagation. 

Connected  with  the  nerve  system  is 
the  mind  system,  the  existence  of 
which  needs  no  argument.  Every 
one  is  conscious  of  it.  Where  demon- 
strators and  chemists  leave  the  ner- 
vous system,  metaphysicians  and  bi- 
ologists take  it  up.  Thus  far  there  is 
as  much  certainty  as  the  exact  sci- 
ences have  attained.  With  the  mental, 
spiritual,  emotional  and  rational  func- 
tions of  our  nature  everything  is  dif- 
ferent. About  them  there  is  some 
light,  but  naore  darkness.    How:  what 


is  spiritual  is  associated  with  what  is 
material  or  matter  with  mind,  is 
a  mystery. 

What  invisible  agent  puts  the  spirit 
in  motion  within  the  brain,  and  guides 
it  along  the  minor  nerves  to  a  certain 
destination  ?  How  is  it  there  transmut- 
ed into  physical  force  through  muscuha* 
power?  How  far  does  the  spiritual  es- 
sence act  separately  from  the  material 
body?  When  the  body  dies  and  is 
decomposed,  do  thought,  memory, 
emotion  and  the  cognate  mental 
faculties  perish  also?  How  far,  dur- 
ing mortal  life,  is  the  spiritual  sensa- 
tion of  one  person  transmissible  to  an- 
other, and  by  what  medium  conveyed? 

Such  are  some  of  the  questions 
with  which  mental  philosophers  have 
long  struggled  by  the  light  of  nature 
under  great  discouragements,  but  they 
have  discovered  enough  to  show  that 
mental  activity  is  coextensive  with 
human  life,  and  holds  a  control  over 
all  other  interests  within  our  knowl- 
edge. Outside  of  theism,  they  are 
restricted  to  reasonings  from  analogy, 
which  have  force,  but  fall  short  of 
demonstration. 

It  is  everywhere  admitted  that  the 
nerve  system  is  a  connecting  link  be- 
tween mental  and  physical  action. 
Whatever  view  may  be  taken  of  the 
intervention  of  a  supreme  spiritual 
power,  it  will  not  be  denied  that  what 
pertains  to  the  all-embracing  nerve 
system  is  everywhere  uniform,  and 
therefore  subject  to  one  law.  There 
is  an  imponderable  substance,  to 
which  brief  reference  is  made  in  chap- 
ter three,  which  is  even  more  univer- 
sal in  nature  than  the  nervous  sys- 
tem, because  it  pervades  the  mineral 
kingdom.  Its  general  name  is  elec- 
tricity, but  its  phases  are  quite  numer- 
ous. Throughout  the  vegetable  and 
animal  kingdoms  nerves  act  as  con- 


29 


30 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 


ductors.  They  cannot  be  adapted 
to  each  other  and  reciprocate  on  so 
extensive  a  scale  without  a  design  to 
that  effect. 

Electricity  has  shown  such  vivify- 
ing and  sustaining  effects,  that  many 
men  of  science  attribute  vital  energy 
to  it.  This  was  the  theory  of  Dr. 
Bastian,  upon  which  his  experiments 
were  based.  Its  gentler  manifesta- 
tions were  proven  by  Galvani,  to  be 
constantly  present  in  animals,  within 
whom  are  self-acting  currents,  some- 
times called  animal  magnetism. 
Volta  produced  a  current  close- 
ly resembling  it,  by  means  of 
a  metallic  pile,  using  acidulated 
water;  which  was  very  properly 
called  galvanism.  Plants  have  a 
nervous  system  of  their  own,  through 
which  galvanic  currents  pass.  In  this 
way  their  food  is  solved  at  the  root, 
taken  into  circulation,  and  the  result 
is  growth.  There  is  not  much  doubt 
but  all  electrical  excitements,  from  the 
mildest  to  the  most  terriific.are  brought 
into  action  by  variations  of  heat,  es- 
pecially solar  heat,  a  universal,  per- 
petual, self-regulating  process.  These 
changes  produce  an  immediate  effect 
upon  the  nervous  system.  Telegraph 
operators  sitting  at  their  instruments 
within  the  range  of  local  storms,  find 
their  nerves  ,  affected.  If  the  wires 
show  a  strong  surplus,  the  circuit  is 
opened  and  the  wire  connected  with 
the  ground.  Bolts  of  fire  have  been 
known  to  flash  over  the  switch  into 
the  earth,  portions  of  lightning  dis- 
charges in  the  distance  not  visible. 
Persons  in  the  track  of  thunder  storms 
have  their  nerves  disturbed  or  shocked. 

A  surcharge  may  be  fatal,  but  in 
milder  strength,  electricity  may  be  a 
supporter  of  life,  or  a  curative  for  its 
diseases.  The  natural  world  cannot 
be  viewed  on  a  broad  scale  without 
discovering  the  fitness  of  one  depart- 
ment to  another.  They  support  each 
other  as  systems. 

As  these  systems  are  better  known 
to  science,  their  mutuality  is   more 


and  more  apparent.  The  two  which 
have  just  been  discussed,  the  nerves 
and  electricity,  are  examples  selected 
from  many  others  because  of  their 
prominence,  and  because  they  are 
more  familiar.  They  also  possess  an 
irresistible  interest,  by  their  asso- 
ciation with  mental  action. 

Mental  activities  that  are  involun- 
tary, present  greater  evidence  of  sub- 
mission to  law,  than  those  that  are 
under  the  direction  of  the  will.  Some 
are  of  a  mixed  character.  The  do- 
mestic affections  are  offered  as  an  in- 
stance, not  because  they  are  general- 
ly involuntary,  but  because  they  be- 
long to  indisputable  consciousness 
in  all  human  beings,  not  only  now, 
but  since  the  existence  of  the  first 
cave-dwellers. 

The  group  of  affections  occupies  a 
greater  space  among  the  emotions,  and 
has  a  more  direct  influence  upon  hu- 
man affairs  than  any  other,  and  ex- 
ists without  regard  to  philosophy  or 
cultivation.  If  analogies  are  allowed 
any  weight,  this  is  a  fair  field  to  in- 
troduce them.  If  universality  adds 
anything  to  a  metaphysical  argu- 
ment, or  an  almost  complete  accord 
with  other  departments  of  mental  na- 
ture, the  affections  lead.  The  brute 
portions  of  animate  nature,  in  this  re- 
spect  sometimes  outdo   the   rational. 

In  animals  it  is  often  regarded  as 
an  instinct,  which  is  entirely  invol- 
untary. As  arguments  upon  the  dis- 
tinction between  reason  and  instinct, 
bid  fair  never  to  come  to  a  close,  the 
two  faculties  may  be  treated  for  the 
present  purpose,  as  the  same.  Affec- 
tion, passion,  and  other  emotions  in 
animals,  increase  with  their  native 
intelligence.  The  less  imposing  claims 
of  change  by  development  through 
divergence  of  species,  requires  will 
and  supernatural  action,  somewhere. 

Whatever  vitality  may  be,  and 
wherever  its  forces  are  located,  the 
spiritual  part  takes  the  lead  of  the 
physical.  Whether  the  unlearned, 
or  the  learned,  or  all  of  them,  dvuy 


i 


.C. 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 


dooms' 


V 


or  admit  this  duplex  feature  of  our  ex- 
istence, will  not  alter  the  facts.  The 
question  arises  as  to  the  capacity  of  a 
separation  of  mind  and  matter  and  of 
separate  action?  If  analogies  are 
stricken  from  all  philosophical  treat- 
ises, their  bulk  will  be  much  reduced. 
Galvanic  action  of  the  nerves,  tele- 
graphing hither  and  thither  in  obedi- 
ence to  will,  is  a  physical  fact  subject 
to  observation.  The  will  is  spiritual  and 
eludes  the  microscope,  but  is  none  the 
less  an  actuality  or  fact.  Of  that  class 
the  mental  kingdom  is  filbd,  singly 
and  in  groups,  constituting  a  system 
as  wonderful  as  any  department  of 
nature,  but  intangible,  except  in  their 
effects. 

Reason  is  grand  and  memory  indis- 
pensable, but  the  sentiments  and 
emotions  dominate  over  them. 

Memory  is  surely  spiritual,  if  any- 
thing is;  but  it  acts  as  an  agent  to 
the  sentiments  and  emotions,  without 
being  at  all  like  them. 

The  exuberant  domestic  affections 
are  so  various  and  ethereal,  that  they 
are  difficult  to  classify.  They  are 
largely  sentimental  and  sometimes 
artificial,  but  are  ingrained  in  human 
nature  everywhere.  They  are  mental 
realities  of  the  highest  class,  that  oc- 
cupy the  brain,  and  are  as  manifest  as 
rivers  and  mountains. 

Because  they  belong  to  metaphysi- 
cal and  inexact  studies,  and  are  often 
obscure,  they  none  the  less  form  an 
essential  part  of  the  happiness  of  the 
race,  and  must  be  controlled  by  law 
and  order,  no  less  than  material  sub- 
stances. 

The  emotional  sense  which  plays  a 
ruling  part  in  domestic  life,  whether 
of  men,  women  or  children,  is  not  less 
powerful,  though  the  main  springs 
may  be  invisible.  The  difficult  ques- 
tion is  the  relation  to  or  trans  missi- 
bility  from  one  mind,  soul  or  spirit  to 
another.  It  does  not  dispose  of  this 
difficulty  to  deny  a  living  spiritual 
deity;  for  all  these  qualities  exist, 
however  the  human  race  originated, 


and   ideas,  sentiments  and  emotions 
pass  from  one  to  another. 

Without  a  resort  to  a  supernatural 
agency,  involuntary  mental  action  is 
inexplicable.  The  child  is  imbued 
with  the  spirit  of  its  parents,  not  nec- 
essarily in  their  presence,  but  when 
far  away  from  home.  This  sentiment 
is  a  regulating  power  over  its  conduct. 
It  is  not  destroyed  by  the  death  of 
parents.  It  remains  as  a  purely  spir- 
itual influence  through  many  years, 
kept  alive  by  memory,  a  strictly  men- 
tal faculty. 

The  impression  left  upon  a  people 
by  the  character  of  a  good  or  patriotic 
man.  personally  unknown  to  them, 
affects  their  thoughts  and  their  ac- 
tions generations  after  his  decease. 
This  spiritual  effect  is  displayed  in 
great  practical  force  by  different  gen- 
erals in  command  of  armies.  There 
are  many  instances  where  his  troops 
have  no  personal  acquaintance,  while 
they  are  imbued  by  his  spirit,  courage 
and  invincibility. 

This  is  a  real  power,  though  a  mere 
sentiment,  by  which  he  is  multiplied 
into  thousands  of  men,  through  which 
victories  are  won  and  the  fate  of  na- 
tions determined.  It  cannot  be  at- 
tributed to  the  imagination,  and  if  it 
could,  this  would  prove  that  imagina- 
tion, which  is  ideal,  is  a  power  in  the 
world  of  mind,  having  a  systematized 
action  for  valuable  purposes.  On  the 
atheistic  basis,  this  faculty  would 
need  an  explanation   like  the  others. 

Thus  do  experience  and  analogies 
intimate  that  there  is  some  mode  of 
transmission  of  thought  and  emotion 
not  entirely  over  the  nerves  from  the 
living  to  the  living,  but  from  the  dead 
to  the  living.  The  mode  as  a  material 
agency  is  not  comprehensible.  There 
are  other  involuntary  mental  opera- 
tions, in  the  shape  of  trances,  dreams, 
somnambulism  and  visions,  that  are 
less  tangible  than  voluntary  ones. 

In  all  ages  mankind  have  believed 
in  witchcraft,  ghosts  or  some  form  of 
spirit  manifestation.     Little  has  been 


32 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 


settled  that  goes  to  explain  how  much 
reality  there  is  in  such  beliefs.  As- 
trology and  fortune-telling  have  at 
all  times  had  their  influence,  but  as 
yet  these  practices  partake  more  of 
fraud  than  of  philosophy.  The  in- 
crease of  intelligence  steadily  dimin- 
ishes the  credence  which  has  been 
given  to  all  of  these  classes  of  beliefs. 

It  seems  reasonable,  however,  to 
conclude  that  a  complete  moral  gov- 
ernment requires  a  systematic  use  of 
the  spiritual  characteristics  of  our 
nature.  What  these  characteristics 
are,  cannot  be  clearly  defined  by 
science  and  its  modes.  After  passing 
the  line  of  physical  observation,  we 
are  not  necessarily  in  the  unknown. 

Every  person  we  meet  has  moral, 
social,  and  spiritual  qualities,  a  soul 
and  mind,  as  apparent  as  the  body,  a 
study  of  which  is  worthy  of  the  most 
gifted  minds.  To  ignore  such  knowl- 
edge, even  in  a  rough  and  formative 
state,  or  to  despise  it.  is  doing  injus- 
tice to  interests  that  are  dear  to  all 
our  fellow-beings.  Looking  at  the 
qualities  of  the  mind  separately  as  the 
phrenological  student  does  when  he 
maps  them  out  on  his  chart,  their 
names,  numbers  and  localities  are  not 
well  defined,  but  as  a  system  they  are 
all  present.  Their  mystical  outlines 
renders  definition  difficult  individually. 

Scholars  in  this  field,  of  necessity 
contradict  each  other.  Take  the  emo- 
tions, instincts,  affections,  reason, 
memory  and  the  mental  activities,  of 
which  these  are  a  portion;  the  clouds 
which  rest  upon  their  border  lines, 
cannot  vitiate  their  reality  as  a  group, 
for,  viewed  in  a  body,  there  is  noth- 
ing better  defined.  These  faculties 
in  gross  constitute  the  spiritual  part 
of  hu infinity,  and  are  as  readily  per- 
ceived as  material  objects.  No  dis- 
play of  sophistry  can  render  so  plain 
a  truth  obscure.  Wherever  there  is 
human  life,  the  animal  body  is  subor- 
dinate to  the  mental  faculties.  What- 
ever constitute-;  the  soul,  mind  or 
spirit  may  like  the  nebula  not  yet  be 


resolved.  But  like  them  they  are 
capable  of  being  resolved.  The  neb- 
ulous mass  is  a  reality,  though  the  in- 
dividual stars  are  only  partly  defined. 

Whatever  may  be  the  full  law  of 
our  existence,  especially  in  regard  to 
its  perpetuity,  no  one  will  be  exempt 
from  those  laws.  Certainly  it  can- 
not be  varied  to  suit  those  who  deny 
futurity.  There  are  other  people  en- 
titled to  consideration.  Those  who 
have  hitherto  lived  and  died  consti- 
tuting a  great  majority,  have  had  some 
form  of  religious  belief,  to  which  im- 
mortality is  essential.  Whatever  lies 
beyond  our  ken  on  other  planets  or 
systems,  it  is  past  argument  that  here 
mind  is  the  ruling  power. 

It  may  be  mortifying  to  the  pride 
of  philosophers  that  there  is  anywhere 
an  intellect  greater  than  themselves. 
To  deny  such  a  fact  because  it  is  not 
solvable  by  them,  will  not  alter  the 
course  of  nature  or  weaken  the  proofs 
which  exist  in  favor  of  a  supreme 
regulating  mind.  By  analogy  from 
what  is  visible,  mental  potency  of 
any  and  every  kind  should  be  the  last 
thing  which  is  destructible. 

If  it  is  so,  it  must  require  the  same 
fiat  power  that  caused  its  existence. 
If  anything  idealistic  as  contrasted 
with  matter  has  existence,  it  must  be 
spiritual. 

Reasoning  from  material  nature 
and  mental  nature  as  the  basis  of 
what  we  perceive,  in  almost  all  coun- 
tries there  has  sprung  up  what  is 
called  natural  religion. 

A  mutual  correlation  of  action 
among  the  parts  of  a  civil  government 
or  between  nations,  is  evidence  of  in- 
tellect and  design.  In  the  material 
world  much  more  comprehensive  de- 
partments work  in  harmony,  sustain- 
ing and  not  opposing  each  other. 

The  sun's  rays  have  an  electro- 
magnetic influence  direct  upon  the 
germination  and  vitality  of  plan  is. 
and  also  not  as  direct  but  necessary 
upon  the  animal  system.  But  im- 
portant and  perpetual  solar  heat  on 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 


33 


the  surface  of  the  earth  penetrates  on- 
ly a  short  distance,  yet  by  its  incessant 
changes  is  a  constant  exciter  of  ter- 
restrial electricity. 

Beyond  this  influence  upon  the 
earth,  is  a  deep-seated  source  of  heat 
acting  as  a  universal  electrical  exciter, 
in  its  molten  interior.  From  this, 
more  palpably  physical  activities  are 
derived,  such  as  currents  of  the  at- 
mosphere, and  of  the  ocean,  which 
are  partly  the  effect  of  solar  heat,  act- 
ing in  concert.  It  is  not  a  mere  sur- 
mise to  attribute  galvanic  effects  to 
solar  rays,  coming  to  us  not  from 
that  star  only,  but  other  stars;  and 
that  electricity  is  thus  equalized 
throughout  stellar  space.  Gravitation 
is  local,  as  well  as  general,  through- 
out  earthy  particles,  producing  co- 
hesion. At  the  same  time  on  a  large 
plan  it  is  necessary  to  keep  up  the 
motion  of  the  planets  in  their  orbits. 
These  various  functions  assist  each 
other  in  giving  perpetuity  to  celestial 
movements,  which  probably  include 
regular  orbital  tracks  for  the  stars, 
combined  with  revolution  in  groups, 
like  the  planets. 

For  this  general  system,  light,  heat 
and  electricity  play  their  parts,  wher- 
ever matter  exists,  especially  in  ani- 
mal and  vegetable  life.  It  is  a  coal- 
escing, not  a  divergent  system,  to  de- 
vise and  regulate  which,  a  power 
greater  than  all  is  necessary.  On 
questions  of  conscience  and  the  mor- 
al sense,  scholars  are  not  peculiarly 
qualified  to  decide.  Their  occupation  is 
not  specially  humanitarian,  but  rather 
tends  to  cold  criticism.  The  an- 
cient millions  did  not  require  the  aid 
of  science,  to  discover  a  God  in  na- 
ture, or  to  enjoy  the  beauty  of  celes- 
tial bodies.  Moderns  have  learned 
much  that  relates  to  the  vast  and  glo- 
rious heavens;  but  what  is  unknown 
far  exceeds  what  is  known. 

Should  it  prove  to  be  true  that  heat  is 
not  a  substance,  only  an  agency,  and 
is  convertible  with  force,  another 
instance   of   concentration   and   sim- 


plicity in  nature  is  established.  Light, 
heat  and  electricity  have  a  correlation 
as  yet  only  partially  understood. 
Scientists  are  on  the  threshold  of 
their  investigations  of  this  mysterious 
relation.  Individually  these  qualities, 
agencies  or  substances,  whatever  they 
are,  may  be  indistinct,  while  as 
groups  they  are  clearly  manifest,  like 
many  other  phenomena  of  the  uni- 
verse. Every  reduction  of  their  number 
renders  the  study  of  them  less  complex. 

The  mental  processes  are  capable  of 
a  similar  simplification.  The  terms 
mind,  thought,  soul,  heart,  and  what- 
ever mental  action  they  embrace,  are 
as  definitions  very  obscure.  As  a 
bundle  of  faculties  crowded  into  the 
small  space  of  the  brain,  with  a  com- 
bined intellectual  force,  they  are 
definite,  all  powerful,  and  their  effects 
easily  understood. 

Should  it  be  demonstrated  that  there 
is  an  all-pervading  ether,  another  step 
will  have  been  taken  in  the  pathway 
of  simplification.  If  this  agent  has 
co-relations  with  light,  heat  and  elec- 
tricity, the  combination  probably  acts 
in  every  kingdom,  and  every  depart- 
ment of  each  of  them  in  general  and  in 
detail.  Another  proof  will  thus  be 
furnished  of  superhuman  contrivance. 
The  indications  are  that  such  concen- 
trations will  be  more  numerous  as 
knowledge  increases.  My  program 
does  not  require  an  exhibition  of 
learning  beyond  what  has  a  bearing 
upon  theistical  philosophy  as  seen  in 
nature.  Much  refined  science,  not 
necessary  to  the  subject,  and  not  easi- 
ly understood  b}'  those  not  specialists, 
is  purposely  avoided.  In  connection 
with  the  nervous  system  there  is  a 
highly  probable  theory  that  the  ubiq- 
uitous ether  has  a  circulation  in  the 
nerve  tissue,  through  which  nerve  ac- 
tion is  carried  on  and  is  accelerated. 
Such  an  explanation,  when  it  is  es- 
tablished, will  present  a  beautiful  sim- 
plicity in  keeping  with  many  other 
features  of  the  natural  world  already 
brought   forward. 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 

VIII. 

General  Considerations. 


BY  COL.  CHAS.  WniTTLESEY. 


Travelers  who  examine  the  inscrip- 
tions at  Hamath  without  being  able 
to  decipher  a  single  word,  acquire 
some  correct  impressions  of  the  people 
who  made  them.  Scientists  who  ex- 
plore the  rains  at  Palmyra  come  to 
many  valuable  conclusions  in  regard 
to  their  builders,  from  which  they 
compose  interesting  books. 

At  Babylon  and  Nineveh,  before 
the  inscriptions  were  deciphered  by 
recent  explorers,  much  had  been  writ- 
ten that  was  principally  inferential, 
based  upon  external  observations. 

From  their  camps  in  the  eastern 
deserts,  all  these  enthusiastic  scientists 
saw,  in  its  fullest  splendor,  the  sidereal 
heavens  revolving  overhead,  yet  some 
of  them  are  unable  to  see  in  that  dis- 
play of  celestial  mechanism  any  evi- 
dence of  an  intelligent  designer. 

Throughout  the  valley  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi are  ancient  earthworks  of  pre- 
historic age.  Nothing  is  known  of 
the  builders  except  that  which  may  be 
inferred  from  their  structures  and  the 
relics  found  in  them.  Not  a  phrase  or 
word  translated  is  known  to  have  been 
written  by  them. 

There  are  only  dumb  witnesses, 
such  as  mounds,  embankments,  effi- 
gies, implements  in' bone,  stone,  flint 
and  copper,  with  rude  pictorial  figures 
on  pieces  of  slate  or  mica;  beads  of  bone 
or  shell,  also  carved  human  heads, 
birds,  snakes  and  animals,  some  of 
them,  like  the  elephant  and  mastodon, 
are  extinct. 

On  the  inspection  of  these  remains 


34 


a  special  archaeological  literature  has 
grown  up.describing  this  people,  their 
religious  worship,  mode  of  life  and 
social  condition.  There  are  scientists 
of  reputation  in  this  line  who  admit  of 
no  author  discoverable  in  nature  who 
as  firmly  believe  in  the  existence  of 
the  mound-builders  and  see  numerous 
designs  in  their  relics  as  though  they 
had  witnessed  their  labors. 

Professor  Haeckel,  of  Jena,  stands 
at  the  head  of  analytical  chemists. 
His  life  has  been  devoted  to  protogela- 
tines  or  protoplasm,  including  the  pri- 
mordial cells  and  spores  that  belong  to 
animal  and  vegetable  life.  His  lead- 
ing purpose  has  been  the  support  of 
a  theory  of  spontaneous  or  self-gener- 
ation. Darwin  and  Huxley  investi- 
gated the  same  question  with  equal 
patience  and  less  bias,  but  were  una- 
ble to  agree  with  Haeckel,  on  whose 
dictum  sociology  principally  rests. 

However,  this  question,  regarded  as 
one  of  natural  science,  may  be  set- 
tled, there  is,  like  the  doctrine  of  di- 
vergence, a  point  eventually  reached 
where  chemistry,  philosophy  and  all 
science  comes  to  a  halt. 

In  the  doctrine  of  divergence  Dar- 
win foresaw  that  when  there  existed 
in  the  remote  past  only  one  pair,  it 
could  not  exist  by  development.  He 
adopted  the  hypothesis  that  there 
might  have  been  hermaphrodites  as 
the  ancestors  of  that  pair.  What 
might  have  been  goes  for  nothing  in 
exact  science,  only  what  was.  Could 
hermaphrodites  breed  animals  of  per- 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 


35 


feet  sexual  organs  different  from  them- 
selves? 

When  the  existence  of  sexes  is 
reached  in  animals,  the  reproductive 
cells  are  different  in  the  male  from 
those  in  the  female.  By  force  of  this 
difference  they  are  impregnated  by 
contact.  Protoplasm  is  not  life,  nei- 
ther are  the  cells,  but  only  media  nec- 
essary to  its  propogation.  Every- 
thing prior  to  the  first  introduction  of 
life  belonged  alone  to  the  mineral 
kingdom;  therefore  the  gelatines  and 
plasms  before  that  era  were  chemical, 
not  vital  compounds. 

Great  efforts  have  been  made  to  ex- 
plain away  this  difference,  but  thus  far 
without  success.  Evolution  in  the 
animal  world  was  impossible  until 
there  were  animal  existences,  and 
therefore  there  must  be  back  of  this 
point  some  intelligent  power  to  put 
evolution  in  motion,  both  as  to  plants 
and  animals. 

Does  evolution  evolve  itself?  Did 
evolution  exist  before  there  was  matter 
of  any  kind  on  which  it  could  act?  Were 
the  few  simple  substances  evolved? 
If  all  these  queries  should  be  answered 
in  the  affirmative,  spontaneous  gener- 
ation goes  back  to  the  origin  of  all 
things,  and  is  the  supreme  Creator,  as 
I  have  before  stated,  under  a  new 
name,  with  the  same  faculties.  Evo- 
lution and  development  do  not  explain 
spontaneous  generation. 

All  phenomena  of  the  universe  are, 
on  this  theory,  self-originating,  but 
nowhere  is  there  hitherto  any  mental 
power,  design  or  contrivances,  except 
the  limited  ones  possessed  by  the  ani- 
mal kingdom,  which  was  the  last  to 
come  into  existence.  Such  is  the 
philosophy  of  misapplied  science,  de- 
nying a  designer  in  the  origin  of  the 
mineral  kingdom  with  its  unfathomed 
mysteries;  in  the  priority  of  vegetable 
as  to  animal  life  or  in  the  endowments 
of  matter  which  has  such  wonderful 
capacity  to  expand  and  progress  under 
fixed  laws. 


Great  efforts  have  been  made  to  ob- 
literate the  quality  known  as  vitality, 
and  to  bring  it  within  the  laws  of 
chemical  action.  In  the  mineral 
kingdom  there  are  wonderful  trans- 
mutations that  are  traceable  to  chem- 
ical activities,  stimulated  by  electrici- 
ty, galvanism,  magnetism,  segregation 
and  gravitation,  always  within  the 
limit  of  manifest  law. 

It  has  not  been  shown  that  such 
changes,  which  include  the  solution, 
transportation  and  re-arrangement  of 
particles  of  matter,  have  originated 
any  simple  substance.  These  activi- 
ties are  not  creative,  and  therefore 
bring  nothing  new  into  existence. 
Since  the  primordial  origin  of  simple 
substances  and  primeval  life,  such  a 
creation  has  been  effected  only  by  the 
intervention  of  sex,  either  animal  or 
vegetable:  which  life  or  vitality  is  not 
new  matter.  It  is  associated  with 
matter,  without  being  itself  material. 
Germination  and  propagation  among 
plants  and  animals,  require  seeds  in 
some  form,  pollen  and  ova  to  be  im- 
pregnated,  a   process    not   chemical. 

Such  vitalized  matter  is  pre-en- 
dowed  with  the  quality  of  vitalization; 
which  is  not  new  substance.  It  is 
life  force,  brought  into  action  through 
the  medium  of  sexuality.  If  it  were 
otherwise,  the  great  number  of  skill- 
ful chemists  and  electricians  who  have 
labored  to  produce  it  chemically 
would  have  succeeded.  A  material 
base,  with  proper  conditions,  is  requi- 
site, and  electricity,  galvanism,  segre- 
gation with  other  imponderables,  and 
carbon,  hydrogen,  nitrogen  and  oxy- 
gen. But  their  action  comes  within 
a  mental  domain,  not  a  material  one. 
It  is  an  endowment  which  chemists 
employ,but  which  they  cannot  change. 
Their  success  in  that  direction  would 
be  the  same  as  it  has  been  in  the  ori- 
gin of  vitality  by  chemical  agencies. 

Life  is  capable  of  variation  within 
the  limits  of  genera,  but  chemical  a£- 
finity  admits  of  no  variation. 


36 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 


In  natural  history  the  first  process 
of  classification  is  the  grouping  of 
what  is  similar.  This  leads  to  a  sep- 
aration of  what  is  unlike  in  individ- 
ual qualities  and  facilitates  the  study 
of  nature.  The  same  feature  charac- 
terizes the  entire  range  of  philosophic- 
al and  scientific  investigation. 

First,  generalizations,  such  as  king- 
doms, orders  and  so  on,  down  to 
species.  In  many  departments  the 
grouping  covers  much  that  is  un- 
known, while  as  a  group  the  concep- 
tion is  complete.  There  is  no  depart- 
ment of  inquiry  where  this  practice  is 
more  helpful  than  in  what  pertains  to 
mental  activities  where  precise  defini- 
tions are  more  difficult  to  formulate. 

Looking  at  the  qualities  of  the  mind 
separately,  as  the  brain  student  does 
when  he  maps  them  out  on  his  chart, 
their  names,  members  and  localities 
are  not  well  defined.  Besides  their 
mystical  outlines,  which  render  de- 
scription difficult  individually,  defini- 
tions are  wanting  to  convey  precise 
ideas.  Scholars  in  this  field  of  neces- 
sity contradict  each  other. 

Take  the  emotions,  instincts,  affec- 
tions, reason,  memory  and  the  mental 
activities  of  which  these  are  a  portion, 
the  clouds  which  rest  upon  their  bor- 
der lines  cannot  destroy  their  reality 
and  power  as  a  group,  for,  viewed  in 
a  body,  there  is  nothing  better  defined. 

These  faculties,  in  gross,  constitute 
the  spiritual  part  of  humanity,  and 
are  as  readily  perceived  as  material 
objects.  No  display  of  sophistry 
can  render  so  plain  a  truth  ob- 
scure. Wherever  there  is  life  the  an- 
imal body  is  subordinate  to  the  men- 
tal faculties. 

Whatever  constitutes  the  soul,  mind 
or  spirit  may,  like  the  nebula,  not  yet 
be  resolved,  but  like  them  are  capable 
of  being  resolved. 

The  nebulous  mass  is  a  reality  though 
the  individual  stars  are  only  partially 
defined.  Whatever  may  be  the  full  law 
of  our  existence,  especially  in  regard  to 


its  perpetuity,  no  one  will  be  exempt 
from  that  law.  Certainly  it  cannot 
be  varied  to  suit  those  who  deny  fu- 
turity. There  are  others  entitled  to 
consideration.  Of  these  who  have 
hitherto  lived  and  died,  a  great  major- 
ity had  some  form  of  religious  belief 
to  which  immortality  is  essential. 
Whatever  may  he  beyond  our  ken  on 
other  planets  or  systems,  it  is  beyond 
argument  that  on  our  own,  mind  is 
the  ruling  power. 

It  may  be  mortifying  to  the  pride 
of  philosophers  that  there  is  any- 
where an  intellect  greater  than  them- 
selves. .  To  deny  such  a  fact  because 
it  is  not  solvable  by  them,  will  not 
alter  the  truths  of  nature  or  weaken 
the  proofs  which  exist  there  in  favor 
of  a  supreme  regulating  mind.  By 
analogy  from  what  is  visible  of  men- 
tal potency  of  any  and  every  kind,  it 
should  be  the  last  thing  which  is  de- 
structible. If  it  is  so  it  must  require 
the  exercise  of  the  same  fiat  power 
that  first  caused  its  existence. 

In  what  pertains  to  ethics,  morals 
and  religion  the  opinions  of  men  of 
science,  wealth,  eloquence  or  political 
prominence  are  entitled  to  no  more 
weight  outside  of  their  specialty  than 
those  of  equal  general  intelligence. 

Throughout  the  ten  most  promi- 
nent civilized  countries  it  is  a  liberal 
estimate  to  allow  five  thousand  who 
claim  to  be  learned  persons  and  whose 
claims  are  allowable,  who  are  disciples 
of  sociology. 

They  live  in  the  midst  of  about 
three  hundred  millions  of  people,  at 
least  one-tenth  of  whom  are  as  good 
authority  on  religious  subjects,  or 
about  three  millions  who  condemn 
the  new  gospel  of  animism. 

In  the  field  of  natural  law,  on 
which  natural  science  is  based,  the 
contest  between  the  philosophy  of 
theism  and  the  assumption  of  Haeckel- 
ism,  on  which  sociology  is  based,  is  so 
evident  that  very  few  words  are  neces- 
sary to  show  it.     In  the  place  of  deity 


THEISM  AND  ATHEISM  IN  SCIENCE. 


87 


tbere  is  spontaneous  generation  or 
self-begetting  as  the  origin,  not  only 
of  life,  but  of  evolution,  and  of  all 
there  is  of  law  in  nature. 

To  accept  of  this  creative  agency 
requires  an  overshadowing  faith  and 
greater  credulity  in  the  un proven 
than  for  the  wildest  religious  dogmas. 

Experience  has  proven  that  there 
are  temperaments  to  whom  extrava- 
gant ideas  and  theories  are  easily  re- 
ceived as  truths.  Erratic  minds  do 
not,  however,  control  those  that  are 
better  balanced,  and  cannot  do  so, 
even  should  they  become  a  majority; 
for  their  inherent  qualities  are  self- 
destroying.  Like  socialists  in  society, 
they  will  not  submit  to  any  form  of 
law  or  organization. 

CONSCIENCE. 

Conscience  is  a  purely  mental  qual- 
ity, and  one  that  no  brute  creature 
possesses.  It  is,  in  this  respect,  exclu- 
sively an  inherent  sense,  coupled  with 
a  capacity  of  development  or  improve- 
ment, like  reason,  memory  and  that 
group  of  faculties. 

Between  the  latter  faculties  and 
conscience,  there  is  a  similarity,  but 
with  a  closer  alliance  to  the  moral 
side  of  our  nature.  The  term  in- 
cludes a  group  of  senses:  (1)  Com- 
mon-sense, or  the  faculty  to  do  the 
right  thing  in  the  right  way;  (2)  Mor- 
al sense,  or  the  distinction  between 
right  and  wrong;  (3)  Religious  sense, 
a  higher  plane  of  the  moral  sense, 
connected  with  a  living  deity.  As  mor- 
al sentiment,  atheism  sweeps  away 
the  entire  group.  They  are  all  spirit- 
ual, not  animal  qualities,  and  operate 
in   harmony  with  each  other. 

Though  they  are  idealities  with  not 
perfectly  defined  boundaries,  their  col- 
lected power  is  manifest  in  the  king- 
dom of  mind  as  it  acts  upon  the  ma- 
terial kingdom. 

If  this  relation  is  not  supernatural, 
how  is  it  maintained? 

The  inference  is  plain  enough  that 


it  must  be  due  to  a  universal  primor- 
dial law  or  to  incessant  special  power. 
It  is  a  sufficient  definition  of  con- 
science to  call  it  the  perception  of 
right  as  contrasted  with  wrong,  of 
justice  with  injustice,  and  good  with 
evil. 

The  history  of  mankind  shows 
very  few  instances  of  savagery  so 
complete  that  there  are  not  traces  of 
a  moral  code.  Low  and  imperfect  it 
may  be,  but  it  has  still  a  place  in  the 
savage  heart.  If  it  is  assumed  to  be 
due  to  cultivation  and  not  instinct, 
such  an  assumption  does  not  dispose 
of  the  capacity  for  its  development, 
which  underlies,  in  this  as  in  so  many 
other  parallel  cases,  the  whole  struc- 
ture of  moral  and  intellectual  im- 
provement. 

Very  refined  arguments  have  been 
published  to  show  that  speech  is  not 
a  function  of  nature,  but  an  acquired 
habit.  Articulate  sounds  in  man  or 
animals  are  mechanical,  not  mental 
operations.  Animals  have  rude  forms 
of  speech,  but  not  logic;  or,  if  moral 
sentiment  is  conveyed,  no  mode  of  re- 
cording ideas.  The  parrot  can  be 
taught  to  speak  words.  It  does  not 
make  a  man  of  him,  give  him  ideas, 
reason  or  moral  sense.  Man  has  the 
same  need  of  an  articulate  voice  that 
he  has  of  eyes  and  ears. 

Should  it  prove  to  be  true  that  heat 
is  not  a  substance,  only  an  agency, 
and  is  convertible  into  force,  another 
instance  of  concentration  and  simplic- 
ity in  nature  is  established. 

Light,  heat  and  electricity  have  a 
correlation  as  yet  only  partially  un- 
derstood. Scientists  are  on  the  thres- 
hold of  their  investigations  of  this 
mysterious  relation.  Individually  these 
qualities, relations  or  substances,  what- 
ever they  are,  may  be  indistinct,  while 
as  a  group,  they  are  more  clearly 
manifest,  like  many  other  phenom- 
ena of  the  universe. 

Every  reduction  of  their  number 
renders  the  study  of  them  less  com- 


e^j^^^r^^ 


*^"£5 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 
LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 
on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
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